[NYTr] Post-Referendum roundup on Venezuela Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:46:11 -0600 (CST) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Venezuela Information Office (VIO) http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - Dec 7, 2007 [Below find articles appearing in the [mainstream and liberal US press] on the future of Venezuela after the 'no' vote. Despite the non-institution of the constitutional reforms, the Venezuelan government may still be able to institute many social and economic policies if approved by the National Assembly. Additionally, President Chavez still has the right, under the enabling law-up in the summer of 2008- to draft laws in 11 key areas. An opinion piece appearing in San Francisco's Sun-Reporter yesterday depicts Venezuela's electoral system and government as transparent and democratic while Chavez' ex-wife suggests she may begin the process to decrease the number of years a president could serve per term, a right which can be initiated with only 15% of registered voters signatures. -VIO] Time Magazine - December 6, 2007 http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1692038,00.html Venezuela Votes By TIM PADGETT The panic set in on Sunday evening when news started to trickle out of Venezuela's National Election Commission, which is dominated by allies of President Hugo ChC!vez. Referendum returns indicated that ChC!vez's package of constitutional changes, including the elimination of presidential-term limits, would narrowly lose. Inside the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, ChC!vez--who had yet to lose an election since winning the presidency in 1998--was initially furious. But soon enough, he accepted the loss. And his calm concession did Venezuela--in fact, a whole continent whose leaders have had a habit of defying the will of the public--a service. What will ChC!vez do now? The loss should prod him to focus on the problems of his nation that need fixing before he leaves office in 2013 instead of on his incessant, globetrotting socialist and anti-U.S. crusades. That way, ChC!vez stands a chance of leaving a record as the man who finally set Venezuela and Latin America on a real course toward solving terrible inequality and not as just another overweening Latin leftist who stayed too long. ChC!vez insisted to TIME last year that "capitalism is the way of the devil." But while ChC!vez has used his oil windfalls to reduce poverty, Venezuelans suggest they want to increase satanic capitalist investment to solve their nagging unemployment. Some adversaries had good words for ChC!vez. "There's no doubt he brought necessary changes to a very corrupt Venezuela," says Juan MejC-a, a head of the student movement that led the opposition to ChC!vez at the referendum. Indeed, it was ChC!vez's electrifying emergence that paved the way for the election in this decade of other leftist heads of state, like Brazil's Luiz InC!cio Lula da Silva, Argentina's NC)stor Kirchner and Chile's Michelle Bachelet, even if ChC!vez affects to disdain their moderate, market-oriented socialism. Sunday's humbling results will make ChC!vez a less swaggering figure on the hemispheric scene, yet a little humility on his part may make his neighbors more receptive to his initiatives. Latin America--and the rest of the world--has not heard the last of him. *** Chicago Tribune - Dec 7, 2007 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-venez_aviladec07,1,2565521.story Venezuela Strains to Move On By Oscar Avila CARACAS, Venezuela - Alejandro Narvaez and his fellow university students helped make history, leading a movement that was integral in handing President Hugo Chavez a stunning defeat in this week's referendum to overhaul the constitution. On the surface, classmates at Central University of Venezuela seem to be moving on. The "No" banners have come down. There has been no sign of fresh pro-Chavez graffiti, painted in his party's signature red. The bulletin boards are again focused on the usual campus chatter: a used iPod for sale, a flier for a documentary film festival, a cover band looking for a new singer. But Narvaez's school illustrates how difficult a return to normality will be in a South American nation polarized over Chavez's socialist vision. The constitutional referendum failed 51 percent to 49 percent. Some students still are not on speaking terms with longtime friends, and in some classrooms and cafeterias, sit only with those who share their political views. Politics has invaded every aspect of campus life -- even classes in the dental school deteriorate into hour-long debates over the government's plans. Students at Central University say they find themselves energized by their role in marches that drew tens of thousands to the streets. At the same time, they are wistful that they are missing out on the carefree college life of downloading music, swigging Polar beer and making late-night runs for pizza. "Sometimes even I say I want to go back to a normal life," said Narvaez, a gangly 22-year-old political science student. "I want to study. I want to sleep. "The problem is that there is a situation in society that doesn't let you be normal." Students gained followers They took to the streets in May after Chavez declined to renew the operating license of Radio Caracas Television, a network critical of the government. They impressed their fellow citizens with their turnout and their tranquility -- some students placed flowers in the barrels of guns wielded by soldiers who came to maintain order. Other Caracas residents rallied around the students and later joined the diverse coalition of business leaders and disenchanted Chavistas who helped defeat Sunday's referendum that would have greatly expanded presidential power. The on-campus tensions remain because, of course, not everyone was on the same page. Higher education, especially at public universities, is within reach even for poor students, and many come from neighborhoods that are Chavez strongholds. Chavez himself mocked the university protesters as spoiled rich kids who were out of touch with the poor citizens who have benefited from his ambitious social programs. Before the vote, student Mariana Hernandez and her friends were distributing anti-Chavez fliers on campus when she handed one to Orailene Maccari, who was on a bench talking on her cell phone. "You need to respect our privacy," snapped Maccari, a law student. "Respect it. Respect it." As the anti-Chavez students slinked away, Maccari explained her harsh reaction. "They think they have all the answers for the neighborhoods. But they don't smell like the neighborhoods. They smell like Paco Rabanne," she said, referring to a pricey perfume. Back to the books This is the kind of divide that Hernandez says will be difficult to patch up. She can recall arguments with Chavez supporters on campus in which she let her emotions get the best of her. "The same irreverence and rebellion that is a characteristic of youth can make it harder to find common ground," said Hernandez, 22, an orthodontics student who appeared in an anti-referendum television ad. "We are stubborn; we'll fight for our positions to the end." But it remains unclear where the students go from here. They have participated in strategy sessions in recent days as opposition leaders decide whether to reach out to a president who remains defiantly committed to expanding his powers. Some plan to remain active, but Laura Nieto, 21, hopes to get back to cracking the books. Many students had to beg professors to reschedule tests or persuade classmates to take notes for them while they organized rallies and news conferences. Nieto recently spent the eve of a biology exam attending a strategy session at Central University, where students helped train classmates to be monitors at polling sites. "In an ideal world, I'd be studying," she said. "But Venezuela isn't ideal." *** The (San Francisco) Sun-Reporter - December 6, 2007 http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/news/12-06-07sr.html Venezuelan Election is an Affirmation of Participatory Democracy By Peter Graham Cohn The Venezuelan Referendum Election on Sunday, December 2, 2007, once again confirms the vitality and validity of the country's participatory democracy. As I awaited the early morning election results from Venezuela's National Electoral Council (CNE) on Monday, December 3, 2007, the official CNE results were reported on its website and in the local media that the people of Venezuela voted 51% to 49% to not adopt the proposed constitutional reforms that were on the ballot. While the voter turnout of 56% for this election was significantly less than the voter turnout for the 2006 Presidential election which was over 75%, the election results were peacefully accepted by the people of Venezuela. While the United States governmental leadership and our corporate media have raised questions as to whether there is true democracy in Venezuela, the reality of this election should put to rest any suggestion that the electoral process in Venezuela is not free and fair. This election underscores that democracy is alive and well in Venezuela. The people were invited to vote on reforms affecting 33 of the 350 articles of the 1999 Constitution. The purposes of the reforms were generally described by President Hugo Chavez and the government as the following: 1) to speed the redistribution of Venezuela's resources to benefit the poor; 2) to de-centralize political power to grant citizens more direct say in their affairs; and 3) to move Venezuela towards a new more equitable model of development - known as "Socialism for the 21st Century" - in peace and democracy. The reforms more specifically included: a) politics - extending the presidential term to seven years and permitting any sitting president to seek consecutive terms still subject to face reelection and recall referenda; b) economy - expanding economic reforms affecting growth, diversification and business and entrepreneurial opportunities as well as formalizing an economic model centered on social welfare and a diverse range of enterprises; c) mandating that the Central Bank and the executive, through the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Development, more closely coordinate efforts to implement policies that promote economic growth and development; d) property - expanding the definition of property to include: public, social, collective, mixed and private; e) military - expanding the branches of the Venezuelan armed services to include: the Army, Navy, Air Force, Territorial Guard and the Popular Militia which was formerly the National Reserves; f) territorial reforms - further expanding political-territorial boundaries including states, municipalities, a federal district, federal territories and federal dependencies to be complemented by maritime regions, insular districts and cities; and, this latter reform would allow for targeting of certain areas that suffer from a lack of development and infrastructure to have governmental resources more easily directed to them. The reforms were supported by President Chavez as well as the National Assembly after three rounds of public debate. The election was overseen by the National Electoral Council along with volunteers representing various segments of the society as has been the case in some 12 national elections since 1998. There were also international observers including the NAACP and the National Lawyers Guild who traveled to Venezuela to observe the election process. The very fact that the position supported by the government did not carry the day in the election speaks volumes about the openness and fairness of the election, the accuracy of the results, and the level of respect for the sovereign will of the people. For this election as well as all those elections since 1998, Venezuela should be congratulated for so actively engaging in citizen consultation regarding the future of its governance and constitution. This election also affords the United States government an opportunity to engage in positive and constructive diplomacy with an important Latin American partner in this hemisphere. Rather than continuing conflict and strife, there is a current diplomatic opportunity - that should be seized -- to positively affirm the democratic process of Venezuela, to acknowledge its nationwide and common electoral technology that permits every voter to vote on a computer, and to have a paper ballot generated so that the voter can check the accuracy of his or her ballot before it is placed in the ballot box. Unlike the great challenges that the United States has experienced with the close elections of 2000 and 2004, Venezuela was able to verify and accurately report on its election results by the early hours of the morning following the election. This is a laudatory election result that should be more than welcomed in the United Stat[es and any other country that values democracy. [Attorney Cohn serves on the International Affairs and Legal Committees of the NAACP's National Board of Directors and is counsel for the San Francisco Branch of the NAACP.] *** San Francisco Chronicle - Dec 7, 2007 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/07/MN34TPJ9T.DTL Despite Defeat at Polls, Venezuela's Chavez Holds All the Cards By Martin Markovits and Sebastian Kennedy Chronicle Foreign Service (12-07) 04:00 PST Caracas, Venezuela -- The political opposition's elation after Sunday's referendum that denied President Hugo Chavez the sweeping new powers he needed to accelerate his socialist revolution is evaporating quickly. Despite a narrow victory that rejected 69 proposed constitutional reforms that would have allowed Chavez to stand for re-election indefinitely, create new forms of communal property, handpick local leaders under a redrawn political map and suspend civil liberties under extended states of emergency, those changes could still be implemented through a series of California-style voter propositions, Chavez noted this week. "Prepare yourselves, because a new offensive is coming," Chavez told viewers of the state-run VTV television station Wednesday. "These reforms are not dead." Chavez then explained that although current law prohibits him from attempting another referendum to change the Constitution, he could still achieve his reforms via a series of "popular initiatives" by which each reform would be voted on by the Chavez-controlled congress after acquiring signatures of 15 percent of the electorate, or 2.4 million voters. If approved by the congress - known as the National Assembly - it would become law if passed by a majority of voters. Analysts also say Chavez could push through many of the rejected reforms by presidential decree, which he can exercise for another six months as stipulated by a previous decree issued in January. The political opposition had hoped to use the momentum of its marginal victory to galvanize popular support against Chavez. With 90 percent of the ballots counted, official figures stand at 50.7 percent against the reforms and 49.3 percent for the yes vote. But Greg Wilpert, director of a left-leaning news Web site, Venezuelanalysis.com, predicts that not much will change. "The opposition is celebrating right now, but the fact is they are still as powerless as ever," he said. "They have no seats in the National Assembly, and they only have one governor. They will probably gain some seats in the gubernatorial elections in 2007, but that won't make much difference, because real power lies with the federal government. The next election for the National Assembly is in 2010, and that is still a long time away." Jorge Perez, a member of a pro-Chavez political radio cooperative called First Free Black Radio, also points out that the opposition lacks credible leadership and policies to attract the masses. "The opposition has yet to find a leader that can match Chavez's magnetic personality and charisma," Perez said. "They are united and energized only when they stand against him. They need to start developing their own policies and solutions to Venezuela's problems." Any chance of increased cooperation between government and its political opposition appeared to disappear Wednesday when a defiant Chavez dismissed the "no" vote victory with several expletives. "You should administer your victory properly, but already you are covering it in s-. It's a s- victory, and ours - call it, defeat - is one of courage, of valor, of dignity," he said at a news conference at the presidential palace. "We haven't moved a millimeter, and we won't. ... They have nothing to celebrate, and we have lost nothing." Some analysts have also described the proposed use of popular initiatives to achieve change after losing the referendum a violation of the Constitution that would eventually involve a Supreme Court decision. Even though the court is stacked with Chavez loyalists, it has occasionally shown a streak of independence. Popular initiatives "would be fraudulent," said constitutional lawyer Rafael Chavero. Elenis Rodriguez, national secretary for the opposition party Justice First, says Chavez's insistence on pushing through his reforms reveals his true desire: to stay in power indefinitely. "He doesn't really need a new Constitution to implement most of his socialist principles - he can do so using decree powers and the legislature," she said. "But the only way he can stand for re-election is to change the Constitution, and the only way to do that is to encourage his supporters to implement proposals of their own (popular) initiative. It's a very underhanded strategy." On Thursday, Chavez's ex-wife said she will propose her own popular initiative to shorten presidential terms from six to four years and allow presidents one chance for re-election. Marisabel Rodriguez, who divorced Chavez in 2004, said her ex-husband, who assumed power in 1999, has been in office long enough. *** BBC News - December 7, 2007 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7131993.stm Chavez 'Will Step Down in 2013' Last weekend, Venezuelans narrowly rejected the president's plans to reform the constitution. They included a proposal to allow him to run for re-election indefinitely. Mr Chavez has said the country voted no because it was blackmailed by violence threats and on Wednesday said he would try again to push through his reforms. Venezuelans voted 51% to 49% against the proposals in Sunday's national referendum. The result was a blow to Mr Chavez, who had previously secured convincing victories in elections and referendums, including his triumph last December in the presidential poll with 63% of the vote. In his first public statement that he would step down as planned, Mr Chavez said: "The reforms did not get passed, so I will have to leave power in 2013. "I will work around the clock; until the very last day I have left here, I will work relentlessly." Renewed attempts Mr Chavez made the comments at a ceremony for graduates of a scheme called Mission Che Guevara, a state-funded adult education programme, named after the left-wing Argentine-born revolutionary. The BBC's James Ingham in Caracas says the graduates are big fans of the president and so cheered loudly when he told them the opposition would never come back to power. Mr Chavez says he will launch a second attempt to get his reforms through, possibly involving his supporters more in the process. A petition signed by 15% of voters could demand that a new referendum be looked at. Mr Chavez could also change some laws by decree or set up a constituent assembly elected by voters which would write a new constitution. But opponents have received a boost from their success at the polls, our correspondent says, and they will be seeking to influence policy over the next few years with their sights on power when Mr Chavez steps down in 2013. In another development, Mr Chavez's former wife, Marisabel Rodriguez, has said she will propose a constitutional amendment to shorten presidential terms from six to four years. She said two terms of four years each was enough time in power. *** AP via The New York Times - Dec 6, 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Venezuela-Chavezs-Ex-Wife.html Chavez' Ex-Wife Proposes Reducing Term Associated Press BARQUISIMETO, Venezuela (AP) -- Hugo Chavez's ex-wife said Thursday she is proposing a constitutional amendment to shorten presidential terms, saying the president has been in office long enough. Marisabel Rodriguez said she believes terms should be reduced from six to four years, and allow presidents only one opportunity for re-election. ''Four years and re-election ... it gives you enough time,'' said Rodriguez. ''This can be done through an amendment.'' Her comments came four days after voters narrowly rejected the president's 69 proposed changes to Venezuela's Constitution, including reforms that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely. Chavez and Rodriguez divorced in 2004 and have one daughter, 10-year-old Rosines. Chavez, a former paratroop commander who first took office in 1999, also has three children from a previous marriage. Chavez -- a close ally of Cuban leader Fidel Castro -- dismissed his opponents' win as insignificant on Wednesday, using a derogatory term for feces. ''He's been using that language for some time. I think it's a lack of respect for Venezuelans,'' Rodriguez said. Rodriguez drew attention ahead of Sunday's referendum by breaking years of silence and strongly criticizing her ex-husband, accusing him of becoming obsessed with power, putting politics above the population's well-being and failing to fight corruption. * ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us Our main website: http://www.blythe.org List Archives: http://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ Subscribe: http://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================