[NYTr] Venezuela, in the whirlwind once again
 
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 14:48:20 -0600 (CST)

Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
Granma International - Nov 12, 2007
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/noviembre/lun12/venezuela.html

Venezuela, in the whirlwind once again

BY JUANA CARRASCO MARTIN
Special for Granma International

BACKED by 161 byesb votes and just six abstentions from deputies with
the social-democratic party Podemos, the proposed reform of the
Venezuelan Constitution, bound in a red book, was presented on Friday,
November 2 by the National Assembly to the National Electoral Council,
to be submitted to a popular vote on December 2, as stipulated by law.

Hugo ChC!vez has described it as the most important referendum of his
presidency, and it is the 14th time that Venezuelans will be going to
the polls since he assumed the presidency in February 1999. He says he
has the same confidence in the triumph of the reformed Constitution,
which will contribute to paving the way to the so-called socialism of
the 21st century.

bCome see the power of the people in the streets,b he said, addressing
hundreds of thousands bpossibly one millionb of Venezuelans who
participated in an 8.5-kilometer march on Sunday November 4, filling
BolC-var de Caracas Avenue, while similar rallies resounded in other
cities to back the constitutional reform, once more arousing the
opposition forces, who advocate irrational confrontations and coups.

The rallies were the start of a campaign to vote bYes!b and consciously
accept 69 articles of the 350 that comprise the Constitution of the
Bolivarian Republic, plus 15 transitory stipulations. In any case, and
despite the overwhelming demonstration of peoplebs power, ChC!vez and
other speakers did not hesitate to warn that they must be prepared,
first of all, for a battle against abstention, so that nobody doubts
that the great majority of Venezuelans approve of the constitutional
reform, as well as for a violent offensive by the opposition.

JosC) Vicente Rangel, a journalist and former vice president of the
Republic, said in that regard: bOnce again the cards have been laid on
the table; in other words, the opposition is continuing inexorably
toward another error of unforeseeable consequences,b and he quoted
recent statements by an bAdecob (AcciC3n DemocrC!tica Party) member,
Henry Ramos Allup: bThe constitutional fraud is just as bad in
December, January, February or any other date. What it is about is
preventing its consummation,b in an open call to block the peoplebs
will by any means necessary.

The convening of a referendum comes in the midst of violent incidents
initiated by the opposition, which after unsuccessfully using an
employersb strike, an oil strike, a coup dbC)tat and an ongoing media
campaign with the patronage and accompaniment of Washington and all of
its globalized manipulating powers, has now chosen university students
to use as its battering ram, and has sent them provocatively into the
streets to try to destabilize the country, even invoking an attempted
military coup.

How else to judge the maneuver made by General RaC:l Baduel, who in a
press conference for the most reactionary and tacit media opponents of
the Bolivarian Revolution since the start, has called for a bNob vote,
in a step that the people and its leaders are calling treason.

Evidently and reiteratively following the same line is the Fedecamaras
business group, the same one that supported and promoted Pedro
Carmonabs short-lived coup dbC)tat in April 2002, and which is now
saying that the constitutional reform is bunconstitutional, invalid and
fraudulent.b

These and others fear a reality: that the constitutional reform is the
legal power that will intensify the participation of the masses in
their democracy; organize state institutions more efficiently, and
renew economic life, because it will build new forms of property based
on the basic idea that wealth should be justly distributed. These are
the guarantees that the Bolivarian Revolution will be able to respond
to the interests of the dispossessed masses, and none of this is
pleasing to those who see in it a major threat to their outdated powers
and the integrity of their capital.

However, the propaganda campaign against the reform has been
practically focused on one point: the possibility that it would give to
extending the presidential mandate from six to eight years, and
unlimited reelection. They say that this would lead to a ChC!vez
bdictatorship,b in line with the clichC) put forward for destabilizing
purposes by Washington: the demonization of leaders that it considers
its benemies,b the presentation of revolutions as voluntarism and the
whim of a single man, to hide the real truth that they are the peoplebs
decision to have a government that is for them and by them.

That is the prevailing idea today in Venezuelan society; according to a
recent opinion poll in the newspaper Ultimas Noticias, 46% of
Venezuelans believe a reform is necessary, while 35% are opposed to it.
Seventy-two percent say ChC!vezb presidential mandate is good to
excellent, while 25% say it is bad to terrible. This is how polarized
Venezuela is today.

These are the facts, despite the fact that the opposition has almost
78% of TV stations on its side, with a similar figure in the print
media and up to 80% of radio broadcasting, to impose ways of thinking
even if they have to appeal to manipulative lies.

In order to bvalidateb that propaganda for a bNob vote, one section of
the opposition has called itself the No Bloc in the National Electoral
Council, although other groups are trying to prevent the referendum by
any means, including AcciC3n DemocrC!tica, Comando de la Resistencia,
Bandera Roja, Un Bravo Pueblo and Alianza Popular, among others that
have chosen open and violent confrontation.

Herman Escarra, of the Comando de la Resistencia (Resistance Commando),
said shamelessly at an October 25 press conference: bWhat we are
calling for is to ignore any fraudulent referendum, as well as to
prepare ourselves for the restoration of constitutional and democratic
order.b There have even been dangerous sermons about bthe day after,b
apparently an allusion to rise up against the referendumbs approval.

In fact, among the new articles that would come into effect, and which
are also feared and rejected by the opposition, are the ones
recognizing communication as a constitutional right, both private and
public, and the one noting that bevery individual has the right to
opportune, truthful and impartial information, uncensored, as well as
the right to respond,b which is why the articles proposed for change
include tacit and essential support to local communication and
community media. This would open the possibility of valid, true and
necessary communication as opposed to the disinformation to which the
Venezuelan people have been subjected for decades, and at the same
time, would contribute to preventing the current concentration of
ownership of the media in the hands of the powerful.

Thus, as the opposition, held in check, writhes and stamps its feet,
the Bolivarian hurricane has been unleashed as its counterpart.
 

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