Well we had another election in Venezuela for the legislature. The opposition decided not to boycott this election like the last one, which was a stupid as well as an undemocratic tactic. Chavez has lost his super majority of 2/3 which will make it harder to put in some of his projects. This is probably a good thing even though most of Chavez's changes have been good for the majority of Venezuelans. It is probably good in that it will be forcing him to take the minority or his opponents more into account. Again we see Chavez not using the army, which he is popular with, not to undo the results of the valid election.
The Guardian is a rather left-wing newspaper in England. Yet, more than 50 % of its readers consider Chavez a dictator. http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/poll/2010/sep/27/venezuela-hugo-chavez
Whats with the "alleged dictator" comment? Do you realize you can be elected and be a dictator? A dictator is someone who does this: Arresting mdia figures who make remarks "offensive to the president"
I have no problem with someone calling Abraham Lincoln a dictator. He suspended Habeas Corpus too. The Constitution was set up to give more power to one individual (the president) in times of war and especially during a civil war. Hugo Chavez is not in a time of war.
I think a dictator is someone in whom all governmental power is individually vested. Chavez has a ridiculous amount of power, and probably more than intended in a democracy, but he probably falls a bit short of dictatorship. The legislature has some legitimate independence. I'm sure he'd like to be a dictator, but he's not quite there.
Chavez can do whatever he wants. Where are the other branches of government to stop Chavez from arresting someone for saying something that "offends the president"? If he can do that, he can pretty much do what he wants.
Snap Analysis: Venezuela opposition gains in anti-Chavez fight 4:20am EDT By Frank Jack Daniel CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez's allies won a majority in parliament in Sunday elections but his opponents surpassed expectations to win over a third of seats and boost their chances of stopping his re-election in 2012. The opposition also claimed to have won a slim majority of the popular vote, but that was not confirmed by authorities. The result is likely to be well received by investors in Venezuela's high-yielding bonds, although it was not immediately clear whether Chavez will moderate his socialist revolution to try and win back swing voters. OPPOSITION GAINS MOMENTUM - Chavez is still Venezuela's most popular politician, but the opposition can now use its newfound soapbox in parliament to make its case against the socialist leader before the next presidential election in 2012. - If the opposition's claim to have won 52 percent of votes nationwide is confirmed, it will be an important symbolic defeat for the president, who draws strength from his popular support. He won 55 percent of the vote in an election last year. "The opposition has a chance to sell the idea that it is stronger, that Chavez is not a majority and that there is a large gulf between the votes and the composition of parliament. This is fertile ground for someone to capitalize on the idea of change and motivate the critics," said respected pollster Luis Vicente Leon. - With over a third of the seats, the opposition can in theory block Chavez's Socialist Party from passing major legislation and from naming top officials to bodies such as the Supreme Court. - If final result show the Socialist Party wins at least 99 seats, it will have the three-fifths majority constitutionally required to give Chavez fast-track powers to pass legislation by decree. If not, it will be another victory for the opposition, who will have a taste of real power to slow the leftist leader's overhaul of the state. - Some fear Chavez, in a legislative corner, could move to limit the power of parliament by devolving some law-making powers to grass-roots community groups. He also has three more months to push through laws before the current parliament ends. - Although Washington has stayed largely quiet during the election campaign, U.S. officials are bound to be happy at the new parliamentary limitations on Chavez, who is their leading critic in Latin America. INVESTORS WARY OF POLITICAL VOLATILITY - Some analysts predict a small rally for Venezuelan bonds following the peaceful election and acceptance of results by both sides. Venezuela's benchmark 2027 global bond closed at 70.56 on Friday, up 6.73 percent from two weeks ago as the market responded to a peaceful campaign. - The new parliament is bound to be conflictive and an outside risk exists that Chavez will look to shackle the parliament rather than slow his revolution. - However, with the widest yield spread in the EMBI+ index, Venezuela's debt prices already include a big discount for political and policy risk. Prices for the OPEC nation's bonds tend to move in line with oil prices more than anything else. "The recent underperformance of Venezuelan debt already discounts the high policy/political risks with the resiliency of external risk appetite likely allowing for catch-up gains after surviving the headlines of the event risks of elections," Siobhan Morden of RBS Securities said in a note last week. - State oil company PDVSA is due to issue $3 billion of new paper at the beginning of October. - The government says Venezuela is slowly emerging from a long recession, which also provides an upside for bondholders worried about a possible shortage of dollars if economic woes continue. (Additional reporting by Enrique Andres Pretel; editing by Kieran Murray) http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68Q1AR20100927
let's see, if the opposition actually has some power, I think I am open to think Chavez isn't a dictator. But c'mon, are you real? Hahaha. Chavez will rule with an even tighter fist and you will now see why people call him a dictator if you haven't before.
I don't know enough about Chavez or the current government set up to have much of an opinion, but I sure don't take the word "dictator!11!!1" for granted. He puts his thumb squarely in the eye of many powerful nations and even more powerful multi-national interests, so I don't expect him to get an objective presentation in modern media soundbyte-age.
After Florida in 2000 . . . I think we should be less critical of other country's elections. Rocket River
I would say that when the opposition stages a failed coup there are elements of civil war. A dismissal of the comparison to Lincoln on the grounds that the histories differ presupposes a certain level of understanding of both histories, and it seems as if you fail to grasp important circumstances of the Chavez regime.
In similar news, alleged dictator Kim Jong-Il wins a majority in his election. http://kcna.co.jp/index-e.htm
Really, you think DPRK is similar to Venezuela? You should read the book Nothing to Envy if you want to learn about the horror of North Korea. Venezuela's relatively peachy compared to that, and nothing like the Venzuelan elections (with multiple actual candidates for a given position) could ever happen in DPRK. We call them both "commie," but that doesn't actually make them much alike necessarily.
So true. According to the NYT, the US media and most on this bbs, the fact that the handful of news media moguls who owned all the major media and actively financing the coup against Chavez and devoting their media corporations to supporting the coup is completely irrelevant They are just the "free press"; nough said. Only a total dictator would not treat them like the NYT for instance. From memory: the media moguls instantly put the coup instigators on national TV when they burst in and seized Chavez; they announced that Chavez had resigned; they would not let the Chavez or any government spokesperson say otherwise. When a few hours later, after the loyal palace guard, a major contingent of the army and masses of the public surrounded the new "president" and ended the coup the media moguls were lucky that they were not immediately imprisoned. BTW in the few hours they siezed Chavez, the coup leaders and their "president" were also immediately recognized by the USA. Bush I ? After Chavez resumed power the same folks encouraged (in cahoots with a foreign power, the US government), a damaging strike of the oil workers to sabotage the economy to make the economy suffer and decrease the popularity of the Chavez government. Of course he was then a total dictator because he did not treat the handful of media moguls and the folks in the oil companies like how we would expect the US government to treat the NYT and Chevron.
