[El Universal] "The actions of government authorities to take full control over the lives of people and the attempt to set conditions to perpetuate itself in power," as well as the approval by the outgoing National Assembly of an enabling law granting special legislative powers to President Hugo Chavez, were rebutted by the Venezuelan Bishops' Conference (CEV) in the findings of its annual meeting. In a pastoral message called "Yearning for Union, Justice, Freedom and Peace in Venezuela," the bishops and archbishops said that the passage of the enabling law granting special legislative powers to President Chavez "ignores people's will as expressed on September 26, 2010" in parliamentarian elections."
Diego Padrón, the Bishop of the city of Cumana (northeastern Venezuela), who served as the front man of the CEV, said that the democratic system needs "a gesture of good will from President Chavez by sending the enabling law back to Parliament. If he really is a good democrat, he should give up this legal power that suppresses collective freedoms."