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| Caribbean-Latin America | |
| The Youth Of Venezuela Rise Up | |
| 2007-11-28 | |
| A Dec. 2 referendum in Venezuela that would grant extreme powers to Hugo Chávez isn't going as the budding dictator planned. Youth are protesting and the poor have doubts. Just who is the "left" in Venezuela is now up for grabs. By hook or crook, President Chávez may yet win this referendum, which proposes 69 amendments to the Constitution. The most worrisome one would remove limits on his reelection – for life. Others would allow him to take private property in an "emergency" and give him direct power over the nation's foreign currency reserves. Media and human rights groups could also be restrained. All this is part of Chávez's "revolution" for "21st-century socialism," only the revolution is faltering as the poor face increasing food shortages in an oil-rich country. To win votes for his draconian steps, Chávez has included amendments that would, among other things, reduce the workday from eight to six hours and expand social benefits. These, of course, have immediate appeal to the majority of Venezuela's population who are poor. But guess who sees through this latest populist power play: Left-leaning students on university campuses.
Student protests in Latin America are often a precursor to a leader's downfall. In the current protests for a "no" vote on the Venezuela referendum, students have found support from the Catholic Church, many political allies of Chávez, and his former mentor in the military, former Defense Minister Raúl IsaÃas Baduel. Their voices keep alive the hope that the poor will see their future in democracy and not the paternalistic visions of a man who brooks little opposition. Other leaders in Latin America are challenging Chávez, who tries to use oil wealth to win over leftists in other nations, including the US. "You cannot mistreat the continent, set it on fire as you do, speaking about imperialism when you, on the basis of your budget, want to set up an empire," said Colombia's president, Alvaro Uribe, this month. And Chávez's antics in public forums, too, have hurt his cause. Like many other impatient revolutionaries such as Pol Pot in Cambodia, Chávez wants results in a hurry. He has given a new slogan to the military: "Fatherland, Socialism or Death." It is that reliance on the military and organized thugs to get his way that so upsets leftist students. Other leftist leaders in the region, such as Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio 'Lula' da Silva, work within an open and fair democracy to uplift the poor. Such democracies may be slow in yielding benefits, but the alternatives, such as Chávez's rush to absolute rule, have been proven to be worse. Like the fairy-tale child who saw the emperor has no clothes, the youth of Venezuela are seeing the Chávez reign for what it is. | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #6 So the youth of Venezuela are rising up against the leftist thug the youth of America are rising up in support of. Oh, the Irony! |
| Posted by: SteveS 2007-11-28 17:22 |
| #5 "The Soap Box, Jury Box are gone. If the Ballot Box fails, its time for the Ammo box". I believe that is what Jefferson et al had in mind with regard to the Second Amendment. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2007-11-28 16:24 |
| #4 Easy enough to make them available from Colombia and the US semi-covert "Training" forces there. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-11-28 13:05 |
| #3 Are Venezuelans holding weapons ? I would have thought Hugo would have covered that base already. |
| Posted by: wxjames 2007-11-28 12:50 |
| #2 "The Soap Box, Jury Box are gone. If the Ballot Box fails, its time for the Ammo box". That's a keeper. |
| Posted by: Mark Z 2007-11-28 07:50 |
| #1 " government price controls have reduced the supply of such staples as milk." Econ 101. Constrain price and supply will contract, no matter what the demand is. Looks liek Chavez really beleives that crap about command economies, and knows nothign of supply side economics. Stuck in the 60's and 70's like all his socialist/collectivists supporters here in the US. The US ended having hideous double digit inflation & unemployment under Carter's mishandling of the economy after Nixon and Ford screwed around with wage and price controls. Took a lot of pain and a brave President to unwind that (Reagan). Shame they have neither - and that it looks like Chavez will have the the central bank in his hands, which is only thing restraining him from completely trashing the economy and looting the nation. So long venezuela, hope you liek starving as you nation collapses. Look at Zimbabwe. Chavez is going ot take the oil money and give it to his cronies and patrons in the thugocracies (Iran, Cuba) after he siphons a lot of it off for his own wealth. They need to pick up guns and start killing Chavez people if they steal this vote. The Soap Box, Jury Box are gone. If the Ballot Box fails, its time for the Ammo box. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-11-28 00:58 |