Chavez's promises
Commy
Posts: 4,984
-- Transform sclerotic bureaucratic state institutions making them more efficient, transparent and honest while allowing greater citizen participation in them.
-- Reform the civil service and eliminate entrenched corruption that's a major uncorrected problem.
-- Advance the "ideals of social justice and economic independence" by continuing to build a new social and economic model based on equitably distributing national wealth through investments in health care, education and social security.
-- Modernize financial sectors including banking and insurance and reform tax policy assuring those paying too little are taxed fairly.
-- Upgrade science and technology benefitting all sectors of society and the nation in areas of education, health, the environment, biodiversity, industry, quality of life, security and national defense including state and local community co-responsibilities for the nation's defense.
-- Improve citizen and judicial security by modernizing and reforming public health, prisons, identification, migration regulations and the judiciary.
-- Upgrade the nation's infrastructure, transport and all public services including home construction, telecommunications and information technology.
-- Structurally improve and developmentally enhance the nation's military.
-- Establish territorial organization norms in states and communities relating to voting and constituency size.
-- Allow greater state control of the nation's vital energy sector including nationalizing oil production in the Orinoco Oil basin, arranging equitable joint ventures with private investors, taking state control of electricity and gas production, and restructuring tax rates making them fairer.
In these areas, Chavez's critics ignore the limits of his authority:
-- He's bound to govern within the limits of the law under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
-- He's restricted to areas authorized by the National Assembly.
-- His authority will expire after 18 months.
-- He has no power to harm civil or human rights nor would he wish to as a social democrat believing in them for everyone, even for his opponents.
-- He'll address only internal areas unrelated to relations with other countries.
-- He has no authority to expropriate private property nor can he. Venezuelan law forbids it, and Chavez obeys the law.
-- The Venezuelan Constitution empowers the people to rescind all laws by popular referendum if 10% or more registered voters request a referendum vote be held, and for laws passed by decree if only 5% want it.
-- The democratically elected National Assembly can change or rescind decree-passed laws by majority vote. Chavez's 18 month authority doesn't override or interfere with citizen, judiciary or National Assembly "check and balancing" of presidential powers.
In short, Hugo Chavez's wants to reform and modernize a bloated, entrenched, and corrupted bureaucracy needing major change.
-- Reform the civil service and eliminate entrenched corruption that's a major uncorrected problem.
-- Advance the "ideals of social justice and economic independence" by continuing to build a new social and economic model based on equitably distributing national wealth through investments in health care, education and social security.
-- Modernize financial sectors including banking and insurance and reform tax policy assuring those paying too little are taxed fairly.
-- Upgrade science and technology benefitting all sectors of society and the nation in areas of education, health, the environment, biodiversity, industry, quality of life, security and national defense including state and local community co-responsibilities for the nation's defense.
-- Improve citizen and judicial security by modernizing and reforming public health, prisons, identification, migration regulations and the judiciary.
-- Upgrade the nation's infrastructure, transport and all public services including home construction, telecommunications and information technology.
-- Structurally improve and developmentally enhance the nation's military.
-- Establish territorial organization norms in states and communities relating to voting and constituency size.
-- Allow greater state control of the nation's vital energy sector including nationalizing oil production in the Orinoco Oil basin, arranging equitable joint ventures with private investors, taking state control of electricity and gas production, and restructuring tax rates making them fairer.
In these areas, Chavez's critics ignore the limits of his authority:
-- He's bound to govern within the limits of the law under the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.
-- He's restricted to areas authorized by the National Assembly.
-- His authority will expire after 18 months.
-- He has no power to harm civil or human rights nor would he wish to as a social democrat believing in them for everyone, even for his opponents.
-- He'll address only internal areas unrelated to relations with other countries.
-- He has no authority to expropriate private property nor can he. Venezuelan law forbids it, and Chavez obeys the law.
-- The Venezuelan Constitution empowers the people to rescind all laws by popular referendum if 10% or more registered voters request a referendum vote be held, and for laws passed by decree if only 5% want it.
-- The democratically elected National Assembly can change or rescind decree-passed laws by majority vote. Chavez's 18 month authority doesn't override or interfere with citizen, judiciary or National Assembly "check and balancing" of presidential powers.
In short, Hugo Chavez's wants to reform and modernize a bloated, entrenched, and corrupted bureaucracy needing major change.
Post edited by Unknown User on
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Comments
the only reason these two are singled out (and Iran) is becasue the US acts like some mafia don and these are independent nations, not exporting all their resources to the US
I want the sanctions lifted too. I would also like to see the cuban people live in freedom.
yeah, free from US terrorism would be great...
Voting to give an executive powers beyond his limits is stupid (both the US and Venezuela). Venezuela just gave Chavez the equivalent of the PATRIOT Act.
So basically Venzuela has said that let's not bother with a thing called congress.
Fuck that! There should always be someone to check the executive. Have we not learned our lesson in the USA?
How can someone point to Castro or Chavez and say "oh well there is a good idea" just look and see what happens when the executive runs wild.
There are snakes on the mother fuking USA plane
where are you from?
First of all, Chavez authority will not expire after 18 month, he was elected for a 6 year term. The 18 months are a whole different story. See, the National Assembly (which has 0 members from the opposition) gave Chavez absolute power to govern by decree for 18months. Hence, he will be able to expropriate or to order expropriations, basically he will be able to do whatever he wants. Had the national assembly had the will to really hold him accountable would the had given him such powerws? I mean they are his sheep, they just clap every time he opens his mouth... Chavez obeys the law? Just wondering, how are you so sure about that?
The Boliviarian constitution was tailor made by Chavez and the Supreme Court integrated (guess what!) only by Chavez supporters.
He has no power to harm civil or human rights nor would he wish to as a social democrat believing in them for everyone, even for his opponents.
Yeah, go tell that the 150,000 venezuelans that have been forced to leave the country and to Patricia Poleo (journalista), to Carlos Ortega (former president of Venezuela's most important workers-union) or to Danilo Anderson (pro-Chavez judge assasinated to blame the opposition) or to every single journalist that tried to investigate the Anderson affair. Oh, last but not least, the thousands of workers of the TV channel (RCTV)...
About other countries, well just more purple prose. He funded the campaings of: Ollanta Humala, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega and Rafael Correa. Before the ballotage (2nd round) took place in Peru Chavez stated he would break diplomatic relations with Peru if Humala did not win. Humala lost, so he refused to acknowledge Garcia's legitimacy and diplomatic relations are deteriorating by the day. He's donating money to Bolivia so they can build over 30 military bases in Bolivia's border with Chile. That's very helpful considering Michelle Bachelet's government is actually trying to improve her country's relations with Bolivia. What else? He called Josè Miguel Insulza (OAS) president and asshole in public TV, because Mr. Insulza (one of Latin America's most respected politicians, former chancellor of Ricardo Lagos) expressed his concerns for Venezuela's freedom of speech...
About infrastructure. Where to begin...oh, I know. The bridge that connected the city to the major international airport of Venezuela and to the most important seaports fell down (there is a Colorado Canyon now over there, I saw it) and remains fallen down. Couple of month ago the alternate road collapsed as well. The housing programme is non-existant, unless we can consider promoting looting a housing plan. Furthermore, the streets of Caracas are in its worst shape ever!!!
Corruption, well that's been a major issue in Venezuela. However Chavez has not improved the situation. Corruption just switched sides. For example, there is public accountability for at least half of the oil revenues. In the national budget making process the price of oil was put at 32 par barrel. So nobody knows what the government does with the extra profits. Although there are some guesses: money for his cause....
But yeah, he's a dream come true, the patron saint of the poor...
Idaho.
Some of the biggest terrorist acts in the world were run out of Florida, by Cuban exiles, groups that operate today.
Cuba, sick of the attacks, infiltrated many of these groups (groups responsible for all kinds of terrorist attacks in the 80's, including the downing of a passenger airliner) and sent the list to the FBI, thinking that they would put a stop to the criminal acts. Instead the FBI arrested the Cuban agents and left the terrorist groups alone. For quite some time as it turned out.
http://www.freethefive.org/meet5.htm
:eek:
Caterina, can you provide some links on this? This is very, very troubling news and I was not aware that this had happened.
And in case anyone missed this, I posted this article last week:
http://www.topix.net/content/trb/0429124115278161490529644273753734312808
Hi Jeff
Yes I have tons of links, but I'm not sure if this information was posted on english speaking news outlets. If you understand spanish I'd be glad to provide links.
The bridge collapsed almost a year ago. When I went to Caracas last July it took us more than three hours to get to Caracas (it used to be 40 minutes car ride) and I read on Venezuelans newspapers that the alternate road also had collapsed.
What a stupid post...
I could probably get through the Spanish on my own.
Wow. I don't know much about the logistics within Venezuela having never been on the mainland there before. How do they move goods throughout the country with that bridge and the alternate road out?
Hehe...did the Bureau of Enlightenment start printing flyers or something?
http://buscador.eluniversal.com/articulos/results.jsp?pager.offset=0
Here you'll find one year of news (from Venezuela's most renowned newspaper called El Universal) related to the highway collapse. The highway was called Viaducto Caracas - La Guaira, and the alternative road, La Trocha.
Well, about logistics, what can I say. It's been a mess, quite a mess, in just every aspect. Regarding goods coming by sea, I believe they were deviated to another seaport (Puerto Cabello), which is 200kms away from Caracas.
Good luck with the spanish, whatever question you have, feel free to ask...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aMypL_zv7maM&refer=latin_america
"The president said he plans in 'coming hours'' to decree a law that allows the government to expropriate any business that sells food products higher than government-set prices."
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aPG1AkxUvva8&refer=latin_america
"Venezuela's annual inflation rate rose to a two-year high in January as a depreciation of the country's currency boosted import costs. Consumer prices increased 18.4 percent in the 12 months through January, the fastest pace in Latin America.
Yesterday, the government raised the prices it sets on food staples, such as milk and eggs, to ease hoarding that has sparked shortages. Prices on beef and chicken were also raised by the Light Industries and Commerce Ministry.
'Whenever you have controls, adjustments come late,'' said Robert Bottome, an analyst at research company Veneconomia in Caracas. 'You can't raise salaries 26 percent, like the government did last year, and keep prices unchanged. Costs rise and the whole enterprise become uneconomical,"
Thanks for the link -- it opened to a page that showed no search results but I dug around on the site and elsewhere and found a bunch of news about the
Viaducto Caracas. What an unbelievable story....and the fact that this has been going on for a year and a half is simply astounding. The words of the vice president and various ministers is both entertaining and sad -- first denying the possibility of a collapse and then proclaiming, after the collapse, that the government knew it would happen all along.
It's exactly like the metaphorical Taggart Bridge. So odd to see Atlas Shrugged being retold in real life, and the similarities are amazing.
It's so unfortunate that, in the end, Chavez will be held up as the criminal here. He's simply an accessory to the crimes of the people.
Thanks so much for pointing me to this info.
-Jeff
You're welcome and sorry the link did not work properly.
Yes, it a sad story indeed, there are some funny sides too. Some of politicians' public statements are amusing in a tragic way, and there are some funny/sad stories about people who were drinking under the influence and forgot that there wasn't a bridge anymore (very Thelma and Louise style)
Seriously, all the cover ups, the sad excuses and the level of neglectance are huge even for Latin America.
I really hope Venezuelans organize sooner than later and in a peaceful manner do something to hold Chavez accountable
Do you really think Chavez is ultimately responsible here? Aren't the people getting exactly what they asked for?
My impression here is that Chavez's extreme socialist tendencies, while not always voiced on the surface, were well known by the electorate in Venezuela. Furthermore, are not the basic elements of Venezuelan society cheering him on all the while?
Well, I believe that the guilt is be shared among many people: tradicional politicians who did nothing to improve people's situation, except filling their own pockets leading to the 1992 political crisis and both of Chavez failed attempts to depose Carlos Andres Perez. Then, there is Rafael Caldera who signed Chavez excarceration pardon (I'll never forgive him
I'm not sure that Venezuelans were asking for a socialist revolution. They just wanted a change from traditional politicians. Discredit of COPEI, AD and MAS was huge and in 1998 Chavez showed up making messianic promises about social justice, accountable and ascetic government, etc, etc. Back then he never mentioned his so-called "socialism of the XXI century). Actually he started to unfold his "true plans" during last elections presidential campaign. Prior to that he has never mentioned his plans to transform Venezuela in a central-planned economy.
About this socialism issue there is a bit of "schizofrenia" in Venezuelans behaviour. Most of public surveys and polls about political orientations put Venezuelans more to right side of ideology (regardless of social class),opposed to expropriations and with strong anti-Castro feelings. From what I've read and learned through Venezuelans scholars, academics and experts, the poor are not actually aware of this socialist shift, they just care about their living conditions being improved, which has not happened yet. People are living of the promise of a better tomorrow if you will, they are still waiting for all the promises made by Chavez to become true. If you look closely at the last elections results the opposition candidate experienced a very significant growth in very short time, just raising Chavez bets. He wasn't going to chatch-up or win the election, but he started to clim in the polls when we talked about the "Mi negra" card, which was some sort of credit card to distribute oil-revenues between all venezuelans. My point being: Venezuelans just want their living conditions, in general they are not paying much attention to the institutional derail that's going on. Too bad, this derail will affect the most those who are in need.
About the "cheering for Chavez" there is no certainty anymore about how much of that support is still 100% spontaneus. People with any kind of link to the government are under a lot of pressure.
Sigh....definitely see what you're saying here and it's sad. Thanks so much for the perspective.
The situation there seems to be deteriorating more quickly than I expected based on the reading I did this afternoon. It's only a matter of time (if it hasn't already started) that the pull peddlers start trading in lives rather than just soon-to-be-worthless bolivars. The public is really doomed if the price of oil gets much lower....
How easy is it for people to get out of Venezuela?
You're welcome and sorry for the grammar I wrote the post in quite a hurry.
Yes, there is a tense calm in Venezuela, we'll have to wait and see what happens if expropriations take place on a massive scale. Right now there's a lot of scarcity 'cause food producers are refusing to obey market prices proposed by the government. As long as the oil continues on the rise Chavez, sadly, will be fine, waisting money like crazy.
Right now there are no actual restrictions to leave Venezuela. If you have cash (US dollars or Euros) and an effective passport, you're free to leave the country. The thing is there are extremely tight monetary controls. You can buy a maximum of USD3,000 par year, you can't withdraw all your money from the bank, the real estate market is virtually paralized, an top of that if your passport has expired, chances are it will take almost a year to get a new one (I have to say that this is not Chavez fault, ID cards, drivers licences and passports have always been a drama). In brief, if you can afford it you can leave. Favorite destinations are USA and Spain, an lately Chile has become a popular destination among Venezuelans.
No problem.
How are the food produced supposed to obey those prices? It sounds like it's nearly impossible in Venezuela now to produce anything without losing money. One of the articles on that site mentioned that transportation costs have risen something like 80% in the last couple of years. How can you obey an imposed price that will effectively be a death sentence? Are there any talks in Venezuela about halting price controls?
Yikes. I'm certainly glad to hear that those who are able to leave still can. But I suspect there are going to be a lot of people who end up stranded in what may very well end up being an economic desert.
Very well said and I notice how the original poster of this thread is nowhere to be found after this post. Some people just amaze me.
Pensacola '94
New Orleans '95
Birmingham '98
New Orleans '00
New Orleans '03
Tampa '08
New Orleans '10 - Jazzfest
New Orleans '16 - Jazzfest
Fenway Park '18
St. Louis '22
maybe you were assuming i was defending chavez when i was simply supplying facts.
i amazed you...that's just really funny to me for some reason.
so help me understand for a second. you are not defending chavez?
But if you let him keep going, he'll give you everything you want. Complete equality wherein zero gets divided equally by all.
the idea is actually sound...and Venezuela has enough natural resources to pull it off...an equal share of the resources to all. Unfortunately for everyone it looks like he's centralizing power, using the countries resources to secure that position of power and so on...
socialism is sound in theory.
Commy, the idea isn't sound. A woman once told the story of what is happening right now in Venezuela. And she told it 50 years before it happened.
http://www.amazon.com/Atlas-Shrugged-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451191145
Socialism is no more sound than ordering the unplanted seed to produce fruit. You can demand all you want, you can point all the guns you have at it, and you can pass all the laws you want. But it won't give you fruit.
I didn't know that was possible.