Hugo Chavez

[Boomhauer]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090216/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_referendum

Chavez wins vote to scrap term limits in Venezuela

 By NIKO PRICE, Associated Press Writer

CARACAS, Venezuela – President Hugo Chavez won a referendum to eliminate term limits Sunday and vowed to remain in power for at least another decade to complete his socialist revolution. Opponents accepted defeat but said Chavez is becoming a dictator.

Fireworks exploded in the sky and caravans of supporters celebrated in the streets, waving red flags and honking horns. Thousands of people gathered outside Miraflores Palace, where the former paratroop commander appeared on a balcony to sing the national anthem and address the crowd.

"Those who voted 'yes' today voted for socialism, for revolution," Chavez said. He called the victory — which allows all public officials to run for re-election indefinitely — a mandate to speed his transformation of Venezuela into a socialist state.

"Today we opened wide the gates of the future," he said. "In 2012 there will be presidential elections, and unless God decides otherwise, unless the people decide otherwise, this soldier is already a candidate."

With 94 percent of the vote counted, 54 percent had voted for the constitutional amendment, National Electoral Council chief Tibisay Lucena said. Forty-six percent had voted against it, a trend she called irreversible. She said turnout was 67 percent.

At their campaign headquarters, Chavez opponents hugged one another, and some cried. Several opposition leaders said they wouldn't contest the vote.

"We're democrats. We accept the results," said opposition leader Omar Barboza.

But they said the results were skewed by Chavez's broad use of state resources to get out the vote, through a battery of state-run news media, pressure on 2 million public employees and frequent presidential speeches which all television stations are required to air.

Opponents say Chavez already has far too much power, with the courts, the legislature and the election council all under his influence. Removing the 12-year presidential term limit, they say, makes him unstoppable.

"Effectively this will become a dictatorship," Barboza told The Associated Press. "It's control of all the powers, lack of separation of powers, unscrupulous use of state resources, persecution of adversaries."

Voters on both sides said the referendum was crucial to the future of Venezuela, a deeply polarized country where Chavez has spent a tumultuous decade in power channeling tremendous oil wealth into combating gaping social inequality.

Chavez supporters say their president has given poor Venezuelans cheap food, free education and quality health care, and empowered them with a discourse of class struggle after decades of U.S.-backed governments that favored the rich.

"This victory saved the revolution," said Gonzalo Mosqueda, a 60-year-old shopkeeper, sipping rum from a plastic cup outside the palace. "Without it everything would be at risk — all the social programs, and everything he has done for the poor."

Chavez took office in 1999 and won support for a new constitution the same year that allowed the president to serve two six-year terms, barring him from the 2012 elections. Sunday's vote was his second attempt to change that; voters rejected a broader referendum in December 2007.

Venezuela's leftist allies in Latin America have followed the model. Ecuador pushed through a new constitution in September and Bolivia did so in January. Both loosened rules on presidential re-election. Nicaragua's ruling Sandinistas also plan to propose an amendment that would let Daniel Ortega run for another consecutive term.

[leftist whining]But he's not a dictator!!!!!!![/leftist whining]

Interesting to note the other countries doing the same. I usually don't pay much attention to the Central and South American countries.

I'm very glad that our Founders made it pretty difficult to amend our constitution, but I know our own leftists would love to change that...

Effectively this will become a dictatorship," Barboza told The Associated Press. "It's control of all the powers, lack of separation of powers, unscrupulous use of state resources, persecution of adversaries."

Well, duh.

I don't expect it to be long before Omar Barboza suffers an unfortunate....accident.

[Don't care]

.

[Fly320s]

Sounds like the US, in part. The only term limit we have is for POTUS; other offices might as well be a lifetime appointment.  If the vocal leftists get their way, we may even lose the presidential term limit. 

[Standing Wolf]

"The hell with a constitution, we have a democracy."

Well, if not a democracy, at least leadership that knows what it wants.

[Bob F.]

http://www.govtrack.us:80/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hj111-5

Stock up!

[taurusowner]

Would it be too much to propose this be the "breaking point" if this passes somehow?

[AJ Dual]

Honestly, with a constitutional convention required, and 2/3rds the states needing to pass/approve the amendment at 2/3rds supermajorities...

This is the last thing that "Hope and Change" might want to accomplish I'm going to worry about.

[charby]

I see that is had no cosponsors.

If my congressman wasn't so awesome I'm run for that seat on one issue only.

I'd call it the 4-2 amendment.

Basically it would limit people to 4 terms total in the House and 2 terms total in the Senate.

Elected national offices should be a sacrifice not a career.

[K Frame]

Oddly enough, Chavez isn't getting nearly the percentage numbers in elections that he was.

He's also taken a couple of big election hits. Remember his version of Hitler's Enabling Acts, which would have given him virtually unlimited power to rule by fiat? That went down to defeat.

[Ben]

Oddly enough, Chavez isn't getting nearly the percentage numbers in elections that he was.

Might make the next election an "election".

[Manedwolf]

They can go from ballot box to cartridge box as well if it gets too bad. That's up to the population there.

As I've said, even though Venezuela has switched to the AK series, I'd expect that a whole lot of FALs vanished from the armories or got lost on the way to be disposed of.

[longeyes]

They're just testing the waters, tossing out bait.

So far.

But I think we can expect to see lots of proto-fascistic notions floated in the next few years.  They're feeling their power and this "historic" opportunity.  We need to stay vigilant and militant.

[longeyes]

When you have The One, you don't need second-best.

[Ben]

Merged the Chavez threads.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Might make the next election an "election".

I wouldn't count on it.

[Ben]

I wouldn't count on it.

Hence the quotation marks. :)

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

Hence the quotation marks. :)

I understand that. 

I think there's a growing chance that Hugo could actually lose an election one of these times.  The next election might actually be a real election with a viable alternative. 

I think it's more likely that Hugo would cancel future elections altogether, rather than risk losing.  I wouldn't bet on their being any upcoming elections (or "elections"). 

[buzz_knox]

I understand that. 

I think there's a growing chance that Hugo could actually lose an election one of these times.  The next election might actually be a real election with a viable alternative. 

I think it's more likely that Hugo would cancel future elections altogether, rather than risk losing.  I wouldn't bet on their being any upcoming elections (or "elections"). 

Chavez's popularity is decreasing, yet this referendum (which he lost last time around) passed.  I suspect we've just seen the future.  What Chavez wants, Chavez gets.  Hussein was able to get 100% of the vote in last election; I'd say we'll see Chavez's percentage approaching that in the next few elections.

[HankB]

Chavez's popularity is decreasing, yet this referendum (which he lost last time around) passed.  I suspect we've just seen the future.  What Chavez wants, Chavez gets.  Hussein was able to get 100% of the vote in last election; I'd say we'll see Chavez's percentage approaching that in the next few elections.

It doesn't matter who's on the ballot . . . it doesn't even matter who votes.

What matters is who counts the ballots.