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Venezuelans vote themselves Into a virtual dictatorship


See the Claudio Campuzano archive

By Claudio Campuzano
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

March 13, 2000

In 1992, heavily armed soldiers staged a bloody coup attempt against then president Carlos Andrés Pérez, getting within yards of the president’s office before loyalist troops cut them down with a fire barrage. The commander who led the attack, Lt. Col. Hugo Chavez, served two years in prison before being pardoned by president Rafael Caldera three months after he took office in 1994. Now Chávez is the president of Venezuela, elected in a landslide in December 1998 at the head of a leftist-nationalistic coalition — the result of popular disappointment with the country’s inept ruling by the two major traditional parties that over four decades alternated in power and of mounting the anger over pervasive government corruption.

Even though Venezuela has the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East and is the world’s third largest oil exporter, it is mired in a deep recession. Despite its enormous oil wealth, approximately two-thirds of the people live in poverty, while a decrepit state is unable to provide many basic public services, such as health, justice and education.

Last December, more than 70 percent of Venezuelans voted in favor of a new constitution drawn up by a Constitutional Assembly called by Chávez in fulfillment of his campaign pledge of a complete top-to-bottom overhaul of all of Venezuela’s institutions, including the legislative and judicial branches. However, also overwhelming was the abstention figure: 54 percent of Venezuelans decided not to vote at all. With opinion polls showing that less than 2 percent of the voters had read the new constitution, and with only 46 percent of Venezuela’s 11 million registered voters actually voting, the referendum was more of a plebiscite on president Chive’s year-old administration than the well-considered approval of a new constitution.

In general, the new charter gives the state a dominating role in managing the economy, weakens local government autonomy and increases the power of the president and of the military by removing congressional veto of military promotions. It also extends the presidential term to six from five years and allows incumbent presidents to run for a second consecutive term.

A month ago, having come to the end of its mandate, the constituent assembly delegated its powers to a temporary commission, ensuring the government unconditional support in the coming months. The commission, quickly dubbed “congresillo” (mini-congress in Spanish), has full legislative powers. Headed by Luis Miquelena, president of the now defunct assembly, the “congresillo” is in the process of approving a series of key legislative proposals, including a new criminal code as well as reforms of regional and municipal government. It is also to appoint members of regional councils, Supreme Court judges, as well as electoral officials — in effect changing the whole institutional structure of the nation in three short months.

Free public discussion of these and other issues is not possible. The new constitution includes a clause that establishes that news organizations are required to publish “truthful, opportune and impartial” reports, and decisions on what is “truthful, opportune and impartial” will be made by the government. In other words, censorship is written into the constitution, setting the stage for a constitutional dictatorship.

The “congresillo” is intended to fill a power vacuum until a national poll in late May chooses a new one-house National Assembly (the Senate has been eliminated), which the president can dissolve under certain circumstances, as well as state governors and mayors. There will also be a presidential election then. Facing a fragmented and leaderless opposition, Chávez was expected to win easily.

However, Francisco Arias, governor of oil-rich Zulia state and one of the leaders of the failed 1992 coup, launched last week a bid for the Venezuelan presidency in the May 28 elections, presenting a strong challenge to his former comrade-in-arms President Chávez. Flanked by the two other leaders of the coup, Yoel Acosta and Jesús Urdaneta — head of police intelligence until he resigned three weeks ago—, Arias, who is seen as much more moderate than Chávez, accused him of forging close ties with communist Cuba and concentrating power in his own hands.

“Venezuelans and Cubans are navigating in the same sea . . . It is necessary that the peoples of this continent march toward that sea of happiness, of equality and justice,” Chávez said recently.

Political analysts say Arias could mount a serious challenge to Chávez due to his ability to appeal to both the poor majority and middle- and upper-class voters who reject Chavez’s left-leaning policies. “We don't want authoritarianism. We don't want Venezuela to repeat the tendency for concentrating power and remaining in power. No revolution can be tied to a single person,” Arias said when he announced he would run for he presidency. Distrust of communism in Venezuela is strong: a poll released late last year showed that 85 percent of the population is opposed to a Castro-like regime.

All three former military officers — Arias, Acosta and Urdaneta — had split last month from the Patriotic Pole alliance, which they had helped found after accusing Chávez of betraying their revolutionary ideals and turning a blind eye to corruption by top government officials. At about the same time, Pablo Medina, the leader of Fatherland for All (PPT), said his party was withdrawing from the alliance because it had been allocated only one of the alliance’s candidates for the 23 gubernatorial positions. This left the president more dependent on his controversial political adviser, Miquelena, who is also leader of the Fifth Republic Movement (MVR), the dominant party in the alliance.

Chávez is still seen as greatly popular — some opinion polls show 70 percent of Venezuelans support him — but, engaged as he is in a political war for his survival with his former allies, his economic performance has been disastrous, and this may affect his popularity in the May 28 election. The country’s economy shrank by an astounding 7 percent last year despite a sharp rise in the price of oil, Venezuela’s main export, and the situation has become even more critical by the flooding and mudslides that killed thousands of people on the country’s northern Caribbean coast in December and left tens of thousands more without shelter or resources.

Claudio Campuzano is U.S, correspondent for the Latin American newsweekly Tiempos del Mundo and editorial page editor of the New York daily Noticias del Mundo. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com

March 13, 2000


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