Tag Archives: Chavista

Sep
24
2010
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PERDUE: The last election in Venezuela?

This article was originally posted by The Washington Times

On Dec. 28, 2006, Hugo Chavez played a joke on the radio for Dia de los Inocentes, the Latin American equivalent of April Fool’s Day. He announced that he was tired of being president and was going to resign. After a short pause, he impishly shouted, ”Ha ha! Gotcha!” Almost four years later, many in Venezuela feel as if the joke is still on them as elections become less of a civic exercise and more of a tool of the regime to cement its incremental autocracy.

When the New York Times and CNN reported recently that Venezuela is now more violent than Iraq, Hugo Chavez responded in a newspaper article by blaming the previous administration. Mr. Chavez has been in office for 11 years. With important elections looming Sunday, it would seem more prudent to announce a new anti-crime initiative or at least to feign concern for the country’s escalating crime wave.

Instead, Chavez regime officials have been threatening the opposition. “Our revolution is peaceful, but it’s also armed,” warned former mayor of Caracas and Chavez supporter Freddy Bernal. “If the bourgeois brings out its weapons again, we’ll bring out ours as well. Don’t forget it.” Aristobulo Isturiz, a Chavista campaign coordinator, was quoted as saying, “Either we liquidate them or they liquidate us.”

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Jul
23
2010
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VenEconomy: There is Cause for Concern

This article was originally posted by Herald Tribune

Venezuela is now in the countdown to its parliamentary elections. But a stream of incidents, also of national importance, has relegated this event in the media and in the minds of the general public.

But then, a few days ago, the parliamentary elections hit the headlines again when the Chilean Senate issued a communiqué requesting authorization from Venezuela’s electoral authorities to attend those elections as international observers. In any country where democracy prevails, this request would have met with the acceptance of the electoral authorities. But in Chávez’s Venezuela it was rejected by the National Electoral Council (CNE) and the Chavista benches in the National Assembly.

The president of the CNE, Tibisay Lucena, barred the Chilean parliamentarians as observers on the grounds of “the political positions contained in the agreement of the Chilean Senate,” and claimed that their presence as observers at these elections would be a threat to Venezuela’s sovereignty. Then, the president of the National Assembly, Cilia Flores, backing Lucena, called the Chilean senators “stupid” and “ridiculous.”

This irate refusal to accredit the Chilean observers makes no sense if account is taken of the fact that a sizeable group of representatives from the CNE and Venezuela’s National Assembly attended the Colombian parliamentary elections just a few months ago.

This should serve as a wake-up call for everyone. This is the last straw in terms of the repercussions resulting from the lack of independence of the branches of government in Venezuela, the only guarantee that people have that the parliamentary elections will be held in conditions of transparency and objectivity.

But unfortunately it seems that Venezuelans were not surprised by the CNE’s refusal, nor have they reacted to it. Even more unfortunate is the fact that it is just one more of the many violations of Venezuelans’ electoral rights that have been committed by the Chávez administration.

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