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| Latin America | |
| Venezuela's electoral council rejects Chavez petition | |
| 2003-09-13 | |
Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, has been handed a big win over the opposition parties. Venezuela's new electoral authority has rejected a three-million strong petition demanding a referendum to remove Mr Chavez from power. The National Electoral Council says there were serious errors in legal procedural practice and administration in collecting the petition and an unacceptable six-month time lag in handing it over so it is totally invalid. This presents a huge boost and another invaluable political breathing space for President Chavez, who surely gambled the other day by insisting that the council's decision, whatever it was and it was still unknown then, must be respected. Unabashed, the Opposition is vowing to start from scratch and gather yet another petition. The Opposition want to force a referendum to democratically remove President Chavez from power.
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| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #7 The leftists are coming back into vogue because the politicos who represented capitalism and free market reform that emerged in the 90's were corrupt and incompetent.. The problem though, is that the leftists aren't proving themselves to be an improvement over what they replaced. Unfortunately, Venezuela is having to find this out the hard way. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-13 2:51:57 PM |
| #6 Chavez, when on active duty years ago, tried to overthrow the government. For which he was given five years in jail. WUWT? (What's up with that?) He wasn't taken out and shot? I used to half believe the lefty stuff about how the US and United Fruit and Alcoa and Toys 'r Us messed over Latin America in the Fifties and afterwards, if not beforehand. Now, I see the indigenous personnel can do it just fine themselves. You think accusations of baleful US influence were just an excuse? |
| Posted by: Richard Aubrey 2003-9-13 11:15:56 AM |
| #5 WOT futures bet that Chavez negates the next round of elections when the time comes...the only thing that can diminish him is if Fidel dies soon as that's where much of his support, intel boys' training etc. comes from |
| Posted by: Frank G 2003-9-13 10:44:40 AM |
| #4 Too bad we're distracted in the Middle East because there are events in Latin America that warrant serious attention. The leftists are coming back into vogue because the politicos who represented capitalism and free market reform that emerged in the 90's were corrupt and incompetent - Fujimori is especially contemptible because he had so much promise and initial success with economic development and fighting terrorism. But he blew it when he tried to rewrite the constitution and rig the elections - just another President-for-life-wannabe in the end (some of my Peruvian friends still insist that he's their country's saviour and he should come back and rule). Venezuela is in serious trouble and there's something like 3 or 4 more years left in Chavez's term. I doubt that he's the type of guy who will allow himself to get voted out - he's 100 times more of a power-hungry iconoclast than Fujimori was. He's a Marxist dictator-wannabe through and through. The other leftists are not so worrying, at least not yet. Kirchner and Lulu seem to be responsible, committed democrats, guys with mild socialist leanings are much preferable to Castro groupies like Chavez. Despite the economic chaos, most of L. America went democratic in the '90's and those changes may be permanent. The 30th anniversary of the Chile coup has brought out some disturbing nostalgia and whitewashing. The romanticization of Allende bugs the hell out of me. Pinochet was a bloody dictator and America should not be proud of supporting his reign of terror. But Chile is much better off today for the fact that the whole economy was not collectived and allied with Cuba and the Soviets. It's the same story all over the continent. |
| Posted by: Tokyo Taro 2003-9-13 4:19:59 AM |
| #3 Much of South America continues to insist on being backward and retarded. As long as they don't try the Mexico Gambit and export their peasants illegally to the U.S. to poach our dollars to send back home, then they can otherwise do as they please. Those guys were dumb enough to put a Commie into office? Well then they're going to have to oust the guy themselves. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-9-13 2:30:12 AM |
| #2 The Venezualans elected this 60's era Commie thug throwback. And that was a helluvalot easier than unelecting him has proven to be... Much of South America continues to insist on being backward and retarded. Sigh. So much potential, so much wasted. |
| Posted by: .com (Prez for Life - My Isles of Langerhans) 2003-9-13 1:57:29 AM |
| #1 Next step is a crowbar... What? The workers can't even afford to buy a gun with bullets? |
| Posted by: Charles 2003-9-13 1:37:54 AM |