Venezuela's Chavez may take over schools

jlew24asu wrote:

ok, valid point. you're right, I dont know the system there. but I find it hard to believe having one person dictate how and what should be taught is a very bad thing.

How do you know that just 'one' person has decided what should be taught in schools. I find that to be an impossibility. Do you not think that instead it's much more likely that a large group of Venezuan educators and politicians has initiated this demand?

jlew24asu wrote:

there is no opposition to chavez. for fear of imprisonment and death. thats why he was elected.

This is a lie. Pure and simple.

http://www.itsyourtimes.com/?q=node/108

'A 25% voter turnout doesn't sound that bad considering the opposition parties all bailed at the last minute and boycotted the election. Long "lines of voters in poorer neighborhoods" sounds like a good thing to me.

Since Chevez has survived at the ballot box , the withering attacks and meddling from the US administration and a unanimously hostile, privately held media in his own country, he must be doing something right. Democracy must be alive and well in Venezuela. What are our complaints? Chavez has "Complete control of every branch of government" and "Spent billions in Venezuela's oil revenue on projects for the poor." The former describes the current state of affairs for the Republican party in the US and latter the sounds like a good model for us to emulate.'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6205128.stm

Monday, 4 December 2006, 07:54 GMT

Chavez wins Venezuela re-election

Hugo Chavez says he wants another term to complete his revolution
President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has won a third term in office, securing a clear lead over rival Manuel Rosales.
With most of the ballots counted, Mr Chavez had taken more than 60% of the vote, officials said.

The president, who has secured the support of the poor by using oil to fund welfare, told crowds his left-wing "Bolivarian revolution" had triumphed.

Admitting defeat, his social democrat rival said he would go on "fighting for democracy" in the streets if necessary.

"It's another defeat for the devil, who tries to dominate the world," Mr Chavez told cheering supporters, mocking US President George W Bush, and sending out a "brotherly" salute to Cuba's President Fidel Castro.

Relations between Caracas and Washington have come under increasing strain in the past few years, with the US accusing Mr Chavez of trying to destabilise Latin America.

Minutes after the preliminary results were announced, Mr Chavez appeared at the balcony of the presidential palace in Caracas.

"Today a new era has started, with the expansion of the revolution," he told tens of thousands of jubilant people.

Venezuela was firmly on the track to socialism, said the president, who has vowed to boost the social programmes that won him support among millions of impoverished Venezuelans.

He now has a clear mandate to rule for the next six years, and is likely to set about reforming the Venezuelan constitution to remove any limits on how many times he can be re-elected, the BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says.

Late on Sunday Chavez supporters took to the streets to celebrate, letting off fireworks and playing pro-Chavez songs over loudspeakers.

"That should be the national anthem," one taxi driver from a shanty town told Reuters news agency as he drove around an affluent area of Caracas.

"People round here do not know what it is like in the slums. It is a bigger party than New Year's Eve."

Sunday's election saw a high turnout and the poll was monitored by hundreds of international observers.

The president, who won elections in both 1998 and 2000, is the fourth leftist to win an election in the region in recent weeks.

He won after a campaign in which he characterised his rival as a lackey of the US.

Mr Rosales, governor of the oil-rich western state of Zulia, for his part said the leftist leader was turning Venezuela into a communist state, calling him "a puppet seated on Castro's lap".

He argued that the country's long-term interests lay in free-market policies and attracting foreign investment, and accused Chavez of concentrating power in his own hands while squandering Venezuela's resources.