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No Mas Chavez?
President Hugo Chavez would take on expanded powers and have a shot at being president for life under constitutional changes being considered by Venezuelans Sunday in a vote that raised tensions in South America’s top oil exporter.
Chavez maintains that in order to turn Venezuela into a socialist state he needs indefinite rule. One can only hope that Venezuelans will take a look at Cuba before they decide that’s the really the direction they want to go.
The reforms would also grant Chavez control over the Central Bank, allow his government to detain citizens without charge during a state of emergency, and empower him to redraw the country’s political map and handpick provincial and municipal leaders.
However, I have a feeling that Chavez is going to rule Venezuela for as long as he wants to regardless of the outcome of today’s vote. Whether or not the outcome of the vote will be fair or honest is debatable, but one thing seems to be clear.
No matter how many times socialism proves to be a disaster, countries in Latin America always get suckered into another socialist revolution by another charismatic dictator.
Chavez has warned opponents he will not tolerate attempts to stir up violence, and threatened to cut off oil exports to the U.S. if Washington interferes. His country is a major supplier to the United States, which in turn is the No. 1 buyer of Venezuelan oil.
Considering that the only thing keeping Chavez in power is the money from oil exports, it’s laughable to think he would refuse to sell to his biggest buyer.
Pollster Luis Vicente Leon said tracking polls by his firm Datanalisis in the past week show the vote is too close to predict. Which side wins will depend largely on turnout among Chavez’s supporters and opponents.
About 100 electoral observers from 39 countries in Latin America, Europe and the United States were are on hand, plus hundreds of Venezuelan observers.
-Chris Jones
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