Tag Archives: Venezuela’s parliament.

May
3
2013
Posted by
admin
Comments

In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 5/03/13

ay 108972837 e1367612866751 In Case You Missed It… Articles Roundup Week of 5/03/13

Courtesy of: EPA

This week: Venezuela stumbles deeper into political chaos after a bloody brawl in Congress; Venezuela’s opposition asks for an investigation into the brawl on the floor of Congress that injured several of its lawmakers and caused at least one of them to undergo surgery; Venezuela’s government charges a US filmmaker for allegedly trying to incite anti-government violence and charges an ex-general for being critical of president Nicolás Maduro; and Maduro visits Cuba to meet with former leader Fidel Castro and re-pledge Venezuela’s allegiance to the island. The government begins a partial audit of the disputed election, though the opposition rejects the move as insufficient; unable to force a sweeping review of the disputed election, Venezuelan opposition supporters march on International Workers Day; opposition leader Henrique Capriles files a lawsuit in Venezuela’s Supreme Court to overturn the election, alleging fraud in the counting of ballots and voter intimidation; and Venezuelans become increasingly upset with daily power outages, growing food scarcities and a general fear of the government. Venezuelan debt remains severe as tensions continue to rise; homicides in Venezuela reach a record high in 2013, as nearly 58 are killed per day during the first four months of the year, highlighting a dire security situation amid political instability; and the sale of Globovisión, Venezuela’s sole television station critical of the government, hurts free speech in Venezuela even further.

Political Chaos Grips Venezuela After Legislative Brawl and Rival Marches, The New York Times

Venezuela stumbled deeper into political chaos this week as legislators brawled in the National Assembly and government supporters and opponents took to the streets for rival marches amid continuing tensions over the narrow election victory of President Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela Opposition Wants Probe of Violence, The Associated Press

Venezuela’s opposition on Thursday asked prosecutors to investigate a brawl on the floor of congress that injured several of its lawmakers and forced at least one of them to undergo surgery.

Venezuela Charges U.S. Filmmaker, Arrests Ex-General, The Wall Street Journal

Venezuelan authorities brought criminal charges over the weekend against a U.S. filmmaker for allegedly trying to foment antigovernment violence, and arrested a retired Army general who has become a vocal critic of the government.

Venezuela’s New Leader Visits Cuba, Meets With Castro, The Wall Street Journal

Nicolás Maduro met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro in Havana on Saturday, an indication Venezuela’s new president will maintain the same close relations with the Communist island nation as that of his predecessor Hugo Chávez, who died last month after a battle with cancer.

Contentious Venezuela vote audit begins, AFP

Venezuela began a partial audit of the disputed election won by the late Hugo Chavez’s handpicked successor, as the opposition rejected the move as insufficient.

Venezuelan opposition protests vote, The Washington Post

Unable to force a sweeping review of last month’s disputed presidential election, opposition supporters marched in the streets Wednesday to demonstrate their fury at the ruling party’s efforts to blunt a recount.

Venezuelan Opposition Sues to Overturn Election, The Wall Street Journal

Venezuela opposition leader Henrique Capriles filed a lawsuit Thursday with the Supreme Court that seeks to overturn April’s presidential election, alleging fraud in the counting of ballots and pre-election voter intimidation.

Venezuelans on the Brink, Putting Up With Daily Outages, Growing Scarcity and Fear, Fox News Latino

There’s an old joke about the rabbi who explained to his congregants that Adam and Eve were the first communists, because they wore no clothes, had one apple between them, and thought they lived in paradise.

Venezuelan Debt Under Pressure As Tensions Rise, The Wall Street Journal

Abating a week ago, tensions in Venezuela are fast rising again, and it doesn’t bode well for the country’s debt.

Venezuelan Homicides Reach Record High In 2013, InSight Crime

Murders in Venezuela reached a record high of 58 per day during the first four months of the year, according to police figures contested by the government, highlighting a dire security situation amid political instability.

What the Sale of Venezuela’s Opposition TV Station Means for Free Speech, The Atlantic

Globovision is Venezuela’s last-remaining television station that is openly critical of the government of Hugo Chavez, (and his chosen puppet successor Nicolas Maduro) but on April 15, the majority shareholder Guillermo Zuloaga sold his portion to businessman Juan Domingo Cordero, sending both members of the opposition and some journalist rights groups into a frenzy.

 
Sep
1
2010
Posted by
admin
Comments

Venezuelans are desperate for change

Thomas CoexAFP 300x180 Venezuelans are desperate for changeThis article was originally posted by The Guardian

On 26 September, Venezuelans will vote in the most volatile, unpredictable election in years. At stake: all 165 seats in Venezuela’s single chamber national assembly, and President Hugo Chávez’s aura of invincibility, to boot.

 Normal political reckoning suggests the charismatic far left president should be in trouble. A deep recession, 

Far from running scared, Chávez was relaxed enough to spend the campaign’s opening days not campaigning, but in Havana, consulting his long-time mentor Fidel Castro. Which is perhaps fitting, as Venezuelan elections are coming more and more to resemble Cuba’s.

 As in Cuba, the Venezuelan government barely disguises the use of official resources to finance the ruling party’s campaign. When the Socialists decided to have an election rally in Barinas recently, a platoon of army soldiers were ordered to help set up. The five state TV channels, the dozens of state-backed “community radio” stations and a slew of state newspapers are unembarrassed to act as the propaganda arm of the ruling party, openly campaigning for the ruling party. Meanwhile, people who oppose the government on TV find themselves facing obscure criminal charges and radio stations that broadcast critical content are shut down en masse.

 It’s easy to make too much of the parallels, though: unlike Cuba, where all candidates run unopposed on the Communist party ticket, Venezuelan elections remain genuinely competitive. But they’re far from free and fair. Most worrying is the blatant partiality of the body charged with organising them, the National Electoral Council. With its five-member board stacked four to one in favour of the government, the CNE – as it is known – has handed down a series of rulings that seriously build a massive pro-government tilt into the election’s ground rules.

 

Read More

 
Aug
31
2010
Posted by
admin
Comments

Will Chávez steal parliamentary elections?

This article was originally posted by The Miami Herald

The situation in Venezuela is becoming dangerously tense. Ramón Guillermo Aveledo says that the Sept. 26 parliamentary elections may be the last ones in the country — ever.

Aveledo, a prestigious lawyer, writer and former president of Congress, is the executive secretary of the Mesa de la Unidad Democrática, the umbrella organization for the united opposition.

What’s happening in the country? Possibly, Hugo Chávez could lose, so he’s looking for a way to tamper with the results. One month away from the elections, the most reliable survey — by Consultores 21, as disclosed by expert Joaquín Pérez Rodríguez — gives the victory to the opposition, 52 to 42 percent.

That fact is reinforced by another question that is even more revealing. When voters are asked whether they like or reject Chávez, 37 percent say they like him, 56 percent don’t.

Obviously, Chávez’s popularity has plummeted for at least five powerful reasons:

• The unbearable violence that has turned Caracas into one of the world’s most dangerous cities and all of Venezuela into a slaughterhouse with more victims than Iraq, as The New York Times has reported. Almost 120,000 persons have been murdered since Chávez came to power. Violence has risen fourfold.

• The whole of society detests the existence of paramilitary armed gangs in the service of the government. CNN called them “Chávez’s Guardians” in an excellent documentary that rattled the country. Their task is to intimidate and mistreat the population.

• The infinite clumsiness of a government that, despite receiving a torrent of petrodollars, is incapable of supplying markets, conserving food (millions of kilos rot in warehouses or vanish), maintaining the infrastructures or equipping hospitals halfway decently. With good reason, Venezuelans perceive that no other country in South America is as poorly governed.

• Venezuela’s uncomfortable occupation by Cubans and the donation of much of Venezuela’s wealth to Havana, Managua, Bolivia and the rest of the famished family of 21st-century socialism. With those subsidies, Chávez buys his international importance and fosters the highest level of corruption Venezuela has ever known — which is saying a lot.

Read More