Venezuelan Election Getting Violent/Anti-Semetic

weslinder · Feb 9, 2009

http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/02/08/america/venez.4-425569.php

Venezuela campaign gets rough

By Simon Romero Published: February 8, 2009

CARACAS: In the final days before a crucial referendum that will determine whether President Hugo Chávez can run for re-election indefinitely, campaigning has taken on a noticeable, and sometimes ugly, edge.

Antigovernment protests have intensified in some cities, despite government pressure, and pro-Chávez vigilantes have attacked institutions like the Caracas mayor's office and the Vatican's diplomatic mission.

This is Chávez's second try in less than two years at extending his rule, which he says is necessary to continue the socialist-inspired revolution that he began here a decade ago.

The narrow rejection of his first attempt in late 2007 - part of a broader constitutional reform package - was an embarrassing blow for a leader used to adulation from his supporters.

The referendum next Sunday also offers an opening for the country's fractious opposition to look beyond 2013, when Chávez's six-year term expires.

"For the opposition, the referendum is quite important because they continue to lack a leader capable of challenging Chávez for the presidency," said Gregory Wilpert, a Venezuela specialist who teaches political science at Brooklyn College in New York. "Defeating it is thus their best and perhaps only chance to beat Chávez in the foreseeable future."

Just two months ago, Chávez's allies lost ground in regional elections, with areas like Maracaibo, the second-largest city, and impoverished areas of Caracas going to the opposition. But the momentum from those victories has given way to a tight race over the 54-year-old president's bid to stay in office for years, or even decades, as he has hinted.

Although many voters complain of problems like a surge in violent crime and galloping inflation, Chávez has kept opponents on the defensive, displaying the political skills that have allowed him to consolidate power over the past 10 years.

"Chávez is surrounded by corrupt idiots, but he keeps his focus on helping the poor," said Omaira de Catacoli, 66, a cook who lives in the Cruz Baja district of Catia, a patchwork of slums in western Caracas. "Without Chávez, we would be left to the political thieves on every side. With Chávez, we have at least a little hope."

Venezuela's oil-dependent economy is sharply slowing, injecting urgency into the campaigning on both sides. But in a move that seems to have mollified some opposition mayors and governors, Chávez altered the referendum to let voters also decide on lifting term limits for other elected officials.

Here in the capital, a sense of low-intensity chaos has prevailed as the vote has gotten closer. Pro-Chávez partisans on motorcycles have carried out tear-gas attacks with seeming impunity in recent days, lobbing tear gas canisters not only at the home of an outspoken television executive who has criticized the government, but also at the papal diplomatic mission, which had granted asylum to a student leader who opposes Chávez. Other attacks have targeted municipal buildings controlled by the opposition and private media critical of the government, like Globovisión, a television network, and El Nuevo País, a newspaper.

Over the weekend, the campaigning intensified. Thousands marched against the proposed measure on Saturday through the main thoroughfares of this city, while Chávez led a caravan in support of his proposal through the slums of eastern Caracas.

Valentín David Santana, the leader of a pro-Chávez group called La Piedrita, which has taken credit for most of the tear gas attacks, promised "war" if Chávez loses the referendum. On Saturday, Chávez ordered security forces to detain Santana.

Students have emerged again to fill the void of articulate leadership within the opposition to Chávez.

But both the student movement and Chávez's tactics for combating it have evolved. Once-embattled student leaders like Yon Goicoechea, who accepted a $500,000 prize in 2008 from the libertarian Cato Institute in Washington, have lost support among some voters who rely on Chávez's social welfare programs even if they distrust his plan to stay in power.

"Between Chávez and the students receiving the gringo dollars, I'll take Chávez," said María Encarnación Contreras, 58, a homemaker who lives in Catia.

Meanwhile, Chávez's policies for dealing with the students are growing more repressive, explaining perhaps why the movement seems to lack the well-organized vigor it had just a year ago. In recent days, the secret intelligence police have begun searching the homes of student leaders, with officials claiming some student protests turned violent or had the capacity to do so.

State media is also exerting pressure on the students, in at least one case singling out leaders of Jewish origin for scrutiny

"There are two students - one is Diego Aaron Scharifker, and the other David Smolansky Urosa," Mario Silva, a top ally of Chávez, said last month in a broadcast of his show, "La Hojilla," or the Razorblade. "Scharifker and Smolansky are last names of Hebrew origin, Jewish last names - you see the problems right now."

He continued, "There are sectors of power of the Jewish community, sectors of power that are very disgusted with the position of the president of the republic in his defense of the sovereignty of Palestine."

The verbal attack has opened the government up to claims of fostering a climate of intolerance marked by the desecration of a Sephardic synagogue here by unidentified gunmen last week.

By focusing on the Gaza war and other international issues rather than domestic problems like violent crime, Chávez's campaign is hoping to tilt to its advantage a race that revolves yet again around the personality of the president, whose pervasive presence has only intensified here in recent weeks.

On billboards, he is seen celebrating the 10th year of his revolution. His baritone voice bellows Venezuelan folk songs in subway stations. He surprises broadcasters on state television by phoning in to discuss campaign minutiae on the air. He even inaugurated a column in 30 newspapers, called "Chávez's Lines," to expound on his views.

"Like the horses that come from behind, Venezuela passed from being a dark and minimized country subordinated to the Yankee empire, to hold a lighting place of vanguard in the fights of the peoples of the world for its freedom," he wrote in a recent column. The translation is courtesy of the government's Bolivarian News Agency.

In the end, it is the voters in slums like those of Petare, another impoverished area of Caracas, who will decide whether they want even more of Chávez. These areas, once pro-Chávez bastions, vividly came into play for the opposition in the regional elections last November. But the array of opinion on Petare's streets on a recent afternoon suggested a race that was impossible to predict.

"The population is tired of so many elections," said Nicolás Rudas, 42, who runs a gym in the José Félix Ribas district of Petare. "Two terms and then you go. That's how it should be."

But nearby, Frank Tamayo, 33, a mechanic, said he was ready to give Chávez a chance to stay in power.

"This is what democracy means," Tamayo said. "The power of the majority."

Thom Walker contributed reporting.
Click to expand...

Franchise2001 · Feb 9, 2009

Hopefully they will vote out that scumbag and the Venezuelans can have their country back.

weslinder · Feb 9, 2009

Franchise2001 said:

Hopefully they will vote out that scumbag and the Venezuelans can have their country back.
Click to expand...

They don't get that chance until '13. This election is just to remove the Presidential term limits that would keep him from running again.

F.D. Khan · Feb 9, 2009

Franchise2001 said:

Hopefully they will vote out that scumbag and the Venezuelans can have their country back.

Click to expand...

Hahahha..That picture is AWESOME!

glynch · Feb 9, 2009

Another anti-Chavis article. If he was such a dictator, he wouldn't be screwing around with amending the Constitution so he could run again. After awhile you start seeing a pattern when year after year the supposed dictator is holding and winning fair elections.

I guess Mayor Bloomberg is a dictator, too. The US was of course a dictatorship up until they amended the Constitution to limit the president to 2 terms.

Now, of cocurse he is anti-semitic because he was outspoken against the invasion of Gaza. Chavis is not perfect, but much of the hysteria against him has been uncalled for.

SamFisher · Feb 9, 2009

That Chavis is a real anti-semet.

Valenzuela should be ashamed.

weslinder · Feb 9, 2009

SamFisher said:

Valenzuela should be ashamed.
Click to expand...

¿El Toro?

Ari · Feb 9, 2009

I am glad there is much outcry at the slightest hint of anti-semitism, and there certainly should be. I just wish there was equal or even just a fraction of that outcry when other less popular ethnic groups are victims of an atmosphere of intolerance, which is often not the case since most of those groups do not have nearly the same clout or are considered to be fair game.

Intolerance and racism is true in all its forms, you are not an "okay guy" if you are a staunch defender of Jews and at the first opportunity to pounce on a Chinese or an Arab or a Latino you do so without any reservation.

This frightens me because I am led to believe that the second Jews become once more an unpopular and an unprotected minority, we will see history repeat itself.

If you are racist against one group then you are a racist against all, you just happen to favor a particular flavor of the month.

conquistador#11 · Feb 10, 2009

The anti semetic part is funny. If they digged into the backgrounds of the leaders of the leftist movement in latin america, they would see that the people they represent are the ones that were once discriminated against. We are jews. we are catholics.we are indigenous peoples.

As for chavez, I think he is doing wrong by trying to amend the constitution. It allows men of high morals, doing the work of god, to say, "see we told you so." I've heard that the split between "si" and the "no" are 50/50.

I would just find a successor and have them appoint me prime minister, but that's just me.

Forums

Venezuelan Election Getting Violent/Anti-Semetic

weslinder Member

Franchise2001 Contributing Member

weslinder Member

F.D. Khan Member

glynch Member

SamFisher Member

weslinder Member

Ari Member

conquistador#11 Member

Share This Page

About ClutchFans

Rockets Content

Support ClutchFans!