[NYTr] "Campaign of Lies" - Venezuela Denounces Anti-Reform Drive
 
Date: Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:32:15 -0600 (CST)

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Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

Venezuela Denounces Anti-Reform Drive

by Alfredo Ceballos

Caracas, Nov 22 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan National Assembly Vice
President Roberto Hernandez exposed a campaign of lies on Thursday
concerning the constitutional reform project to be voted at a
referendum on December 2.

 Hernandez told Prensa Latina that, although reform approval "is an
uncontestable fact," it is imperative to overcome the slanders the
opposition is spreading.

The opposition has appealed to such lies as the reform would eliminate
private property and parental custody, that presidential reelection
would mean dictatorship, and so on.

Hernandez recalled that the terms of preserving private property are
clear cut in the reform as other properties, and that it is the people
of Venezuela who decide the president"s reelection.

Eliminating parental custody is truly absurd; it already happened in
Cuba with the infamous Peter Pan Operation: they spread that lie and
many parents sent their children to the United States, dividing
families and many parents lost their children.

In his view "the most important task is to defeat such lies, because
they always mislead some sectors of the population, especially when the
private media helps spread them." The Venezuelan legislator called the
reform in depth confirmation of the current Constitution. We are not
making a socialist reform but a reform in transition toward socialism,
since our revolution is of national liberation in transition toward
socialism.

Hernandez said the time will come when history and economic and social
conditions will call for a fully socialist legal realignment.

He pointed to a union constituency being promoted to achieve unity of
the labor movement, and warned of the need to be alert in the
transition toward socialism because of the danger that the
counterrevolution may win.

On the expectations for December 2, we are certain of the victory.

I think that the big enemy of the reform process is abstention as has
been seen in some elections.

Hernandez also warned that opponents plan to add the negative votes to
abstentions in order to imply that an important sector of the
population does not approve of the reform and so declare it illegal.

With respect to the key aspect of the reform, the Venezuelan
congressman said it is the people"s power and the regulations
undergoing changes are to give the people greater prerogatives that
those that previous laws gave them.

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                           ***

"War of Polls" Precedes  Venezuela Referendum

Caracas, Nov 22 (Prensa Latina) A war of surveys that show either the
"yes" or the "no" options as winners precedes the Venezuelan vote in a
referendum about a constitutional reform that keep tension among
political forces today.

Regarding the polls that attribute defeat in the vote on December 2,
about changes to 69 articles of the Constitution, President Hugo Chavez
warned that it is a maneuver to confuse the population.

"We keep the pro-imperialist oligarchy in despair. In these ten days
left, we have to be alert, with our eyes open in the street. The
oligarchy is trying to destabilize the country, is trying to generate
violence," Chavez warned.

In a people concentration on Wednesday, before a crowd that welcomed
him in front of the Miraflores Palace, after he returned from an
international tour, the president also warned that the attempts to
destabilize Venezuela would fail.

They are trying to create confusion, saying the "yes" option is losing
out to the "no," and that the surveys are showing the "no" as the
winner. Here is the true poll in the streets, with the people, he said,
referring to the demonstration by thousands of followers.

Chavez alert coincided with the publication of a survey by the Datos
pollster, according to which, 41 percent of the population rejects the
proposal and 30 percent supports it, with 29 percent that does not know
or does not answer.

However, another research carried out on November 13, by the Venezuelan
Data Analysis Institute -IVAD- revealed that among those that have
decided to vote, 60.2 percent of the vote intention favors the "yes"
option.

Asked about the differences, the country's Vice president Jorge
Rodriguez said the constitutional reform approval as an option has a
25-percent advantage in the average results of the polls practiced.

The reform, considered as transition to socialism, was presented in mid
August by Chavez, as an expression of the great changes that
characterize his project towards a better distribution of the South
American country's resources.

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