President Hugo Chávez marked the first day of the referendum campaign for his plan to reform the constitution to allow successive re-election with a suspicious reference to United States President-Elect Barack Obama.
Chávez was in battling mode and also ordered the security forces to take action against anybody causing trouble. Speaking at a women's rally for the amendment, he said nobody could be sure his plan was sure of victory. "We're confronted by a very powerful enemy," he declared. Obama had intruded into the campaign.
Opposition leaders whom Chávez claims recently met with State Department officials in Puerto Rico had traveled to New York, the president said. Chávez claimed they'd gone there at Obama's bidding. This at least answered one question that has been hanging on minds ever since Obama won the presidential election last November. For years, Chávez has railed against the Bush Administration, but he and his government have sent out conflicting signals about the incoming new resident at the White House.
Chávez referred to Obama by name at least twice in a speech on Saturday. "If the U.S. President does not obey the mandate of the empire, Obama will be killed, as they killed (John) Kennedy, Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln himself, who was the liberator of blacks, and paid with their lives. "
The implication of this, or so it at least appeared, was that Obama was already under the thumb of the powers that be in Washington -- under penalty of death -- and that the incoming administration would be the same as Bush. "They are dictating a campaign from the Pentagon," said Chavez., " which is the real imperial power."
"The president-elect of the U.S. seems that he will be a fiasco for his people and the world," Chavez mused. "Hopefully I am wrong, but I think Obama will be the same harmful influence."
Telling the president-elect not to mess around with Venezuela, Chávez declared "For quite a time we've not been a colony, Señor Obama."
The Fight on the Home Front for the Re-Election Amendment
As to the home front, Chávez publicly told his interior and defense ministers – and the head of the Metropolitan Police – to fire tear gas "and very well" at anybody damaging property or blocking highways. This was taken to refer to student groups opposed to the re-election plan, some of whom were involved in demonstrations and clashed with troops from the National Guard and the police earlier this week. Chavez and senior government officials have labeled student protesters as "fascists". He warned that officials who didn't obey his order would be sacked.
Until Chávez' outburst, it had appeared the campaign might get off to a relatively low-profile beginning, not least because it was a Saturday, when people have other things to do. There was also something new to argue about after the National Electoral Council (CNE) decided that voting centers would stay open until six o'clock in the evening during the referendum on February 15. Past practice has been for polling stations to close at four o'clock in the afternoon unless people are still queuing up outside to vote. But at the previous referendum on re-election, in December 2007, the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) hurriedly hauled out some of its members and bussed them to polling stations which had stayed open after the official close.
In the end, that referendum produced a small margin against a multiple package of reforms including what has come to be called "indefinite re-election" put forward by Chávez. This reverse was seen as a sign that some of the president's own supporters had quietly voted against him that time.
This time, he's stuck to the single issue of removing the ban on more than two successive terms in office. However, it's still not quite plain sailing. Originally, the constitutional change was to apply solely to presidential mandates. But in what was seen as nervousness about his support, Chávez later broadened his proposal to apply to all elected offices. In turn, that made the question to be put at next month's referendum more complicated. Citizens will be asked to vote one single time on amending no less than five Articles of the constitution.
The question was duly drafted at the National Assembly, where the PSUV and its allies are in almost entire dominance, and quickly rammed through in two debates. The rapidity with which the legislation went through the chamber inevitably raised eyebrows.
Campaign Finance
Public financing of the referendum campaign has also been at issue, with the opposing camps both looking to the CNE to rule in their favor. At first, CNE Director Germán Yépez, one of the five members of the board, announced earlier this week that there couldn't be any campaign financing from the CNE because this hadn't been included in the budget. However, that was before the board met on Friday. After that, another CNE director, Vicente Díaz, who heads the political participation committee at the council, said the board had approved "partial" financing of campaign costs.
Such was the confusion after Yépez' statement that opposition spokesmen said they weren't going to be beggars and would organize their own funding – even if the pro-reform camp was going to take advantage of state resources. That was before Díaz spoke after the board meeting. But there was similar (and long familiar) skepticism about the impartiality of the CNE after it emerged that polling stations were to stay open later on the day of the vote. As to its partial contribution to campaign costs, Díaz said the CNE would be asking the National Assembly for an "additional credit" to finance this. Funds would be paid over not to individual parties but to campaign organizations, he added.
There was an interesting detail. Díaz said the CNE would finance television propaganda but the protagonists in the referendum would have to pick up the tab for radio and written media.
Chávez stands accused of constantly using state media to promote his political cause. Certainly, he uses state media a lot. As has long been customary – to the point of being almost a daily event – the president's remarks about Obama and troublemakers were transmitted in cadenas -- broadcasts that all terrestrial radio and television channels are obliged to transmit live. For his part, Chávez accuses private media, not least Globovisión and the more conservative newspapers, of being actively biased against him.
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