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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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 Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:19 pm Post subject: IS CHAVEZ WELL ON HIS WAY TO BECOMING THE NEXT CASTRO? |
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Is it only a matter of time before Chavez becomes the next Castro?
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Chavez gains free rein in Venezuela By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press Writer
President Hugo Chavez was granted free rein Wednesday to accelerate changes in broad areas of society by presidential decree, a move critics said propels Venezuela toward dictatorship. Convening in a downtown plaza in a session that resembled a political rally, lawmakers unanimously gave Chavez sweeping powers to legislate by decree and impose his radical vision of a more egalitarian socialist state. "Long live the sovereign people! Long live President Hugo Chavez! Long live socialism!" said National Assembly President Cilia Flores as she proclaimed the "enabling law" approved by a show of hands. "Fatherland, socialism or death! We will prevail!" The law gives Chavez, who is beginning a fresh six-year term, more power than he has ever had in eight years as president, and he plans to use it during the next 18 months to transform broad areas of public life, from the economy and the oil industry in particular, to "social matters" and the very structure of the state. His critics call it a radical lurch toward authoritarianism by a leader with unchecked power � similar to how Fidel Castro monopolized leadership years ago in Cuba. "If you have all the power, why do you need more power?" said Luis Gonzalez, a high school teacher who paused to watch in the plaza, calling it a "media show" intended to give legitimacy to a repugnant move. "We're headed toward a dictatorship, disguised as a democracy." Hundreds of Chavez supporters wearing ruling-party red gathered in the plaza, waving signs reading "Socialism is democracy," as lawmakers read out passages of the law giving the president special powers to transform 11 areas of Venezuelan law. "The people of Venezuela, not just the National Assembly, are giving this enabling power to the president of the republic," congresswoman Iris Varela told the crowd. President Bush said Wednesday that he's "concerned about the Venezuelan people." "I am concerned about the undermining of democratic institutions. And we're working to help prevent that from happening," Bush said in an interview with Fox News. But in the square in Caracas, Venezuelan Vice President Jorge Rodriguez publicly ridiculed the idea that the law is an abuse of power, and argued democracy is flourishing. "What kind of a dictatorship is this?" Rodriguez asked the crowd, saying the law "only serves to sow democracy and peace." "Dictatorship is what there used to be," Rodriguez said. "We want to impose the dictatorship of a true democracy." Chavez, a former paratroop commander re-elected with 63 percent of the vote in December, has said he will decree nationalizations of Venezuela's largest telecommunications company and the electricity sector, slap new taxes on the rich, and impose greater state control over the oil and natural gas industries. The law also allows Chavez to dictate unspecified measures to transform state institutions; reform banking, tax, insurance and financial regulations; decide on security and defense matters such as gun regulations and military organization; and "adapt" legislation to ensure "the equal distribution of wealth" as part of a new "social and economic model." Chavez plans to reorganize regional territories and carry out reforms aimed at bringing "power to the people" through thousands of newly formed Communal Councils designed to give Venezuelans a say on spending an increasing flow of state money on projects in their neighborhoods, from public housing to potholes. Venezuelan historian Ines Quintero said that with the new powers, Chavez will achieve a level of "hegemony" that is unprecedented in the nation's nearly five decades of democratic history. Opposition leader Julio Borges called for the 4 million Venezuelans who voted against Chavez not to be left out of decision-making, particularly as he pushes for constitutional changes including scrapping the term limits that would end his presidency in 2013. "The worst we Venezuelans can do is throw in the towel and become like an ostrich (burying our heads in the sand) and giving up the fight," Borges told the Venezuelan radio station Union Radio. But the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, Thomas Shannon, said the enabling law isn't anything new in Venezuela. "It's something valid under the constitution," said Shannon, the assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, told reporters in Colombia. "As with any tool of democracy, it depends how it is used," he added. "At the end of the day, it's not a question for the United States or for other countries, but for Venezuela." Chavez has requested special powers twice before, but for more modest legislative changes. In 1999, shortly after he was first elected, he used it to push through two new taxes and a revision of the income tax law after facing fierce opposition in congress. In 2001, invoking an "enabling law" for the second time, he decreed 49 laws including controversial agrarian reform measures and a law that sharply raised taxes on foreign oil companies. Now Chavez has a free hand to bring under state control the oil and natural gas projects still run by private companies in Venezuela, a top oil supplier to the United States and home to South America's largest gas reserves. Chavez has said companies upgrading heavy oil in the Orinoco River basin � British Petroleum PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron Corp., ConocoPhillips Co., Total SA and Statoil ASA � must submit to state-controlled joint ventures. The new law enables Chavez to unilaterally "regulate" this transition if companies don't agree to the new framework within an unspecified "peremptory period." |
He certainly seems to be making a good start to me. Wouldn't be surprised if he asked Castro's doctors to let him administer enemas to his apparent hero on his most recent visit to Havana. |
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contrarian
Joined: 20 Jan 2007
Location: Nearly in NK
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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| It is time for a little encouraged regime change. A Barret .50 Calibre on one of his visits out of country. One Castro is enough. It is too bad JFK wimped out on the bay of pigs. |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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| No, he's not Cuban. |
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Gopher
Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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Despite not liking Chavez in any way (and his past, spells out the biggest thoughts about the future....), I don't think the outside world should do anything but support peacefully and with dollars, the internal opposition.
This precludes all the past meddling of the U.S. embassy, buying off military superiors, embargoes and covert military ops and support of Columbian guerillas. Also much more.....
People still voted for the man and more importantly, what he says he stands for/stated. That "will of the people" should be respected.
The U.S. and Europe were wrong in their approach to Hamas and they'd also be wrong in anything other than peaceful support of opposition in Venezuela. You can't have it both ways. Democracy is democracy, a vote is a vote. Until that changes (and Chavez will probably and eventually, become less the "populist" and more the crooked authoritarian), not much to be done. Peaceful, diplomatic engagement. Until the bolivar starts turning up in wheelbarrows.....
DD |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:04 am Post subject: |
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| Only a clueless idiotic leftist would take a thread topic like this and turn it into a shallow opportunity to yet again blame and bash America. Way to go, and you know who I am talking about, ddon't you? |
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ChopChaeJoe
Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:18 am Post subject: |
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I'd say that he's wasting an opportunity in venezuala to build up infrastructure instead of buying off the (increasingly) poor populace with soup kitchens and the like.
But on the other hand they elected him , fair and square it appears. People get the government they deserve. Look at that moron the Iranians elected...
Now, the President of Uzbeckastan is a different matter, not elected in anything but a technical sense, machine guns down his people. But he's an American ally, so I guess there are no hard and fast standards. |
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ddeubel
Joined: 20 Jul 2005
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:57 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| Only a clueless idiotic leftist would take a thread topic like this and turn it into a shallow opportunity to yet again blame and bash America. Way to go, and you know who I am talking about, ddon't you? |
Very substantive! The bran flakes of debate.
I'll throw another Twain out there (blindly, without looking at my Penguin [don't use Bartlett's]). Something which summarizes your attitude perfectly.
" The truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let us economize it. " |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:07 am Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
| Only a clueless idiotic leftist... |
Good thing you neo-con ideologues don't stoop to personal attacks, eh? |
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stevemcgarrett
Joined: 24 Mar 2006
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:28 am Post subject: |
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twg:
I'm don't consider myself a neo-con but go ahead and pigeon-hole me if you wish, since essentializing is what you're all about. |
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bucheon bum
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:50 am Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
Despite not liking Chavez in any way (and his past, spells out the biggest thoughts about the future....), I don't think the outside world should do anything but support peacefully and with dollars, the internal opposition.
This precludes all the past meddling of the U.S. embassy, buying off military superiors, embargoes and covert military ops and support of Columbian guerillas. Also much more.....
People still voted for the man and more importantly, what he says he stands for/stated. That "will of the people" should be respected.
The U.S. and Europe were wrong in their approach to Hamas and they'd also be wrong in anything other than peaceful support of opposition in Venezuela. You can't have it both ways. Democracy is democracy, a vote is a vote. Until that changes (and Chavez will probably and eventually, become less the "populist" and more the crooked authoritarian), not much to be done. Peaceful, diplomatic engagement. Until the bolivar starts turning up in wheelbarrows.....
DD |
DD, let me give you some advice. You make good points but they become irrelevant when you throw in anti-us jabs that are generally not based on facts. I'm going to be somewhat of an ass and edit your post to make it sound more reasonable.
| Quote: |
Despite not liking Chavez in any way (and his past, spells out the biggest thoughts about the future....), I don't think the outside world should do anything but support peacefully and with dollars, the internal opposition.
People still voted for the man and more importantly, what he says he stands for/stated. That "will of the people" should be respected.
Anything other than peaceful support of opposition in Venezuela would be wrong. You can't have it both ways. Democracy is democracy, a vote is a vote. Until that changes (and Chavez will probably and eventually, become less the "populist" and more the crooked authoritarian), not much to be done. Peaceful, diplomatic engagement. Until the bolivar starts turning up in wheelbarrows..... |
Voila.
I guarantee you if your posts were more like the 2nd version, people would be a lot more receptive to what you are saying. Not saying we'd agree with you, but some of us might actually read more of your posts.  |
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twg
Joined: 02 Nov 2006
Location: Getting some fresh air...
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:26 am Post subject: |
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| stevemcgarrett wrote: |
| I'm don't consider myself a neo-con |
You know what they say about things that quack... |
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Sincinnatislink
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Location: Top secret.
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:39 pm Post subject: |
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| ddeubel wrote: |
| I don't think the outside world should do anything but support peacefully and with dollars, the internal opposition. |
I'm sure that you'd love, say, Korea sending "peaceful support" and "financial assistance" to socialist death squads in the US, just like we do every time a Central or South American country (or any, really) gets uppity.
Also, we have tried a military coup in Venezuela under Chavez once, slick.
And that's big of you to suggest that we shouldn't bomb Venezuela into the stone age for its leader being inconvenient.
Sure, you're no neocon. You're a neolib. Worse, because you pretend you're doing people favors. |
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Sincinnatislink
Joined: 30 Jan 2007
Location: Top secret.
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:42 pm Post subject: |
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| ChopChaeJoe wrote: |
I'd say that he's wasting an opportunity in venezuala to build up infrastructure instead of buying off the (increasingly) poor populace with soup kitchens and the like.
But on the other hand they elected him , fair and square it appears.
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Right. Silly democracy. |
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thepeel
Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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| Posted: Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:49 pm Post subject: |
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Let them fail, and buy oil from Alberta. When the nations is emerging from a nightmare of totalitarian socialist madness, very kindly say "I told you so" to every che-shirt wearing fool you have ever met.
It is not our place to meddle. Let them fail.
Mencken said it best.
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." |
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