Tag Archives: Sept. 26 legislative elections

Sep
21
2010
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Chavez allies play on sabotage claims before vote

This article was originally posted by The Associated Press

A power cut halts subway service in Venezuela’s capital. It’s sabotage, officials say. An explosion rocks a state-run iron plant. Sabotage again, they explain. Power outages sweep the country and President Hugo Chavez calls on state workers to guard electricity plants against sabotage.

With key congressional elections only days away, Venezuela’s leftist government is increasingly blaming attacks by shadowy opponents for problems in public services — even though they presented no evidence and have made no arrests.

Chavez’s critics mock the claims, saying the government is inventing bogeymen to hide its own inefficiency ahead of elections on Sunday that could challenge the president’s control of the legislature.

Charges of sabotage have become increasingly common among officials in recent weeks as the electric utility and other state-run companies struggle with problems ranging from temporary shutdowns to explosions.

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Sep
16
2010
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The Chavez threat

This article was originally posted by Los Angeles Time

Venezuela’s Sept. 26 national parliamentary elections present a major opportunity for strongman Hugo Chavez to cement his grip on power. Despite a tradition of a free press and competitive politics, a cosmopolitan elite and extensive natural resources, Venezuela is increasingly a case study in how to lose political and economic freedom.

The stakes are especially high in light of evidence consistent with an emerging Venezuelan nuclear weapons program. Ironically, Chavez’s frequently clownish behavior protects him, camouflaging the seriousness of his potential threat to U.S. security and to democratic societies throughout Latin America.

Washington, under Republican and Democratic administrations, has proved unable or unwilling to slow Chavez’s descent into authoritarianism. Unlike coups by prior caudillos in the Americas, the situation in Venezuela today is like a slow-motion train wreck, which makes it all the more frustrating. A lack of international outrage is discouraging pro-democracy Venezuelans across the ideological spectrum. They worry they have been forgotten, especially by an Obama administration that finds foreign policy a distraction.

This month’s elections, therefore, may be a last chance for change before Chavez completes his takeover. He has advanced his agenda since taking office in 1999 by fragmenting his domestic opposition, manipulating election rules, closing down opposition news sources and expropriating the considerable assets of businesses and entrepreneurs. He has materially impaired Venezuela’s prosperous petroleum economy by failing to make prudent investments and improvements, while using substantial oil revenues to consolidate his hold on power.

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Sep
15
2010
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Venezuelan opposition must stand up

by Alvaro Vargas Llosa

In any dictatorship that holds an election, opposition movements face a dilemma — to participate or not to participate. If they do, they could legitimize an electoral charade. If they don’t, they will cede all the institutional space to the dictator.

Five years ago, the Venezuelan opposition boycotted National Assembly elections. Their case was morally sound: Everything pointed to a rigged vote and any collaboration with Hugo Chavez’s farce would openly help him. But the result was a legislature that has overwhelmingly acted as Chavez’s mouthpiece. When those elections took place, Chavez was well beyond the point at which public opinion mattered.

Which is why Venezuela’s opposition Coalition for Democratic Unity has made the right decision by participating in the Sept. 26 elections to renew the National Assembly. Faced with the prospect of a totalitarian state, abstention is not an option. Winning the moral argument — the basic goal of abstaining — is futile when the theater of political war is no longer that of right and wrong but simply that of dying republican institutions versus a tyrannical juggernaut. In this scenario, the urgent need is the preservation of whatever political capital those fighting for the survival of the Venezuelan republic still have; the larger one is to reverse the trend in their favor. By partaking in the vote, the opposition is doing the former and at least keeping alive the chance of the latter.

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