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Referendum in Venezuela: Chavez for Life? |
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From the BBC:
After 10 years in power, the Bolivarian revolution is at a crossroads. Sunday will be the moment when the Venezuelan people decide whether to grant Mr Chavez the right to stand again for office, or oblige him to stand down in 2012, at the end of his current term.
The president says he needs the right of unlimited re-election in order to take Venezuela into what he calls the “third phase” of the 21st Century socialist revolution.
His opponents say the entire measure is an attempt to concentrate the powers of the executive into his hands for the next 20 or 30 years.
Those who follow Latin American politics will recall that a similar measure failed as part of a broader referendum in 2007. It’s margin of failure - 1% shy of the needed majority - points to a close vote tomorrow. If you’re the betting type, odds are on its passage.
Chavez’ has been campaigning hard with ads like the one below:
[English translation: Choose from Two Futures: Pension payments eliminated by privatization of social security...or the punctual payment of adequate pensions to our senior citizens.]
I do wonder at this “Chavez for life” moniker that’s being bandied around. He is an increasingly coercive leader, but holding elections and referendums doesn’t seem like much evidence for autocracy. Plenty of other very democratic countries don’t have term limits - like Britain and Canada - and they don’t receive the same criticism on this issue.
Good point, Dave. The issue here seems to be that Chavez is changing the rules of the game as he goes, now that it’s convenient for him. I personally don’t subscribe to that. The rules have to change some time, and Chavez did it in a much more democratic fashion than, say, Bloomberg did here in NYC. The passage of the referendum far from assures even one more term in office for Chavez, as I argued in a subsequent article: http://www.theseminal.com/2009/02/20/venezuela-to-cut-public-spending/
Thanks for reading and commenting.