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Sat 14 Aug, 2004 10:53 pm
Quote:President Hugo Chavez, a self-styled modern Latin American revolutionary whose left-wing rule has polarised society in oil-rich Venezuela, fights for his political life today in the world's first referendum on recalling an elected head of state.
Both sides eagerly expected victory ahead of today's vote, refusing to believe that the other side could win if the referendum were clean. The result is expected by 6pm today but there are fears that tensions may spark violence.
Divided Venezuelan society is desperate for the referendum to end two years of turmoil that have cost dozens of lives and a social schism bordering on class warfare.
Chavez was elected in 1998 and again in 2000 on a pledge to end the rampant corruption of the old guard that had prevented the country's oil wealth from improving the lives of millions mired in poverty. Chavez has funnelled record oil revenues into grass roots social programmes for the poor, including literacy programmes, free medical care in shanty towns and modernised railways.
The opposition to Chavez a broad coalition of political parties, military dissidents and civic organisations fears Chavez will destroy the Venezuelan economy, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, by pursuing Cuban-style communism. They fear his petrol-fuelled populism is unproductive, and when oil prices go down the country will come unstuck.
"People need jobs, not charity. He only cares about the revolutionary process, he doesn't care about increasing wealth. I am ready to fight if Chavez wins. I would rather die than be a slave to the state, and for my children to lose their liberty," said Guillermo del Rio, 67, a surgeon from Acarigua.
Chavez has the hard core support of 20 per cent who see him a saviour of the poor can see no future without him.
"We needed a revolution because everything was rotten in this country, with so much corruption. That must never come back. Chavez is the first president of the poor. If Chavez goes, Venezuela is dead, annihilated," said Anthony Car, 40, a street trader. Yet the opposition says that people have been blinded by populist palliatives to the reality that since 1998 unemployment has risen from 12 per cent to more than 17 per cent.
There is also concern as to how the military, previously loyal to Chavez, will react if the opposition wins and angry Chavez supporters take to the streets.
The government has said that Venezuela will guarantee exports and prevent unrest, no matter who wins the referendum. But the perceived risk of the referendum disrupting Venezuela's oil supply, for which the US relies for 15 per cent of its crude imports, contributed to record prices last week in markets already unnerved by events in Iraq and Russia.
"If Chavez wins the elections cleanly the country will respect the decision of the majority," says Jose Toro Hardy, 60 an economist and broadcaster sympathetic to the opposition. "But if he tries any trickery it will be difficult for the country to recover its calm."
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Probably after the result, the situation escalate with fights on the street.
Venezuelan reform's foes try to oust popular leader
By Danny Glover and Bill Flecher Jr. | August 15, 2004
EVEN THOUGH the United States is the richest country in the world, one out of three African-American children lives in poverty. Conventional wisdom says that, with mounting budget deficits, we can't afford to help them. Others say we can't afford not to.
And yet while the debate remains intractable in the United States, an even poorer country in our hemisphere -- Venezuela -- is devoting an increasing portion of its oil wealth to paying for doctors, teachers, and hot meals for its children.
Sadly this commitment has rubbed the Bush administration and its allies in Venezuela the wrong way. Consequently, the US administration has labeled the populist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as unreasonable -- because he is a man whose vision does not support the status quo.
Chavez has been popularly elected twice in elections certified as fair and free by international observers. Today Chavez will face a recall referendum -- the first ever held for an elected head of state -- where voters will be asked to decide whether to remove him from office.
Many have viewed the referendum vote as deciding the fate of this popular president. We feel that the heart of this referendum is an effort by his detractors to thwart Chavez's vision of social transformation -- which includes the use of the country's vast oil wealth to support health care, universal education, and job training programs.
Since his election in 1998, President Chavez has increased spending of state oil revenues on social programs to more than $1.7 billion for this year alone (the high for previous administrations was $40 million per year).
These bold social reforms have had a tremendous impact on Venezuela's poorest citizens as we witnessed, first hand, last year as part of a TransAfrica delegation to Venezuela for a series of celebrations honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
As we toured the country's new schools and job training programs, it was striking to see King's dream alive and well in this Latin American country.
For instance, in Caracas, we met a 40-year-old Afro-Venezuelan woman who was attending school for the first time -- she was one of the one million Venezuelans who have learned to read in the past year through newly implemented literacy programs.
One of the high points of our trip was attending the inauguration of a new elementary school named after King. Thanks to the free medical services provided to the country's poorest neighborhood, we visited health clinics where children were being treated by doctors for the first time.
These achievements are more remarkable given Venezuela's divided history as a country of great wealth and intense poverty. Although the country is one of the largest oil exporters in the world, 80 percent of its people live in poverty.
When he was first elected to office in 1998, Chavez pledged to right this historic wrong. Since then, his administration has reformed the country's oil industry in order to use its resources for the good of many rather than for the wealth of a few.
In addition, the country adopted a new constitution under his leadership that expanded rights for women, Afro-Venezuelans, and indigenous people. One of the things we observed while we were there was the sense of empowerment this constitution had given many of its people.
Although many Venezuelans remain loyal to Chavez, in the six years that he has been in office his opponents have been unrelenting in their efforts to stop the social transformation that he has initiated; this time that effort is being advanced through the recall vote.
Chavez's opponents have tried to oust him by any means since his election, including a military coup in April 2002. The Bush administration recognized the coup regime, only to backtrack when President Chavez was restored to office.
Regardless of whether Chavez wins the referendum today, the United States should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Venezuela.
Danny Glover is an actor and chairman of the board of TransAfrica Forum. Bill Flecher Jr. is president of the Forum.
© Copyright 2004 Globe Newspaper Company.
edgarblythe wrote:
one out of three African-American children lives in poverty. .
Any sane person would agree that children living in poverty is wrong. But I'd like to see some rational debate on the causes of the poverty and how best to remedy it.
Of those 1/3 of the children living in poverty:
- how many were born to unwed teenage mothers?
- how many are living in single parent families?
How much of this is the responsibility of the taxpayers to fix, and how much is the responsibility of the men and women bringing these children into the world?
No, that's not exactly what I had in mind when I said I'd like to see some rational debate.
I firmly believe it's the responsibility of the government to see that everyone is given the opportunity to suceed in life. There's free public education through grade 12 in the States, and highly subsidized college available for everyone. But if people consciously choose to ignore the opportunities that are available, and instead choose to engage in detrimental behavior (drugs, crime, teen pregnancy) then what should the responsibility of the government be then?
Jim-doggie: These mythical government "responsibilities" exist in your child-like mind...nowhere else. It's true Little Jimmy. You have watched too much TV. Look it up buddy:
"succeed" is spelled with two "c"'s. Now, as to how you marshall your thoughts:
Signatures: Wait 'til your good in one language. Know what I mean? Vern? Tempest Fuhgetit!
A society owes slightly more than that, Jim. To give someone a swimsuit and toss him in the water is not teaching him how to swim. Only the very gifted would survive. The extremely poor are not all there from laziness, stupidity or lack of will to succeed. Many of these people work hard and are still at starvation level. Their children grow up in the same set of circumstances and emulate the parents. Extreme poverty, the lifestyle and mindset that makes it up, are not set aside by simply attending a school. It takes intervention to break the cycle. It requires some of the trillions being wasted on weaponry and vain attempts at pacification in a place like Iraq being diverted to something useful, such as saving children's lives. You cannot change most adults. Getting to the children while they are able to change is the way to lift them from poverty. It requires someone with a better working knowledge of these things than I to set programs and decide how to get this done. But, it is something that must eventually be attempted by a society. To opine that they cannot be helped is to be defeatist.
Wonderful Jim! That's the exact mindset of an incurable Liberal. The best of man's noble aspirations wrapped in a cloyingly sweet mantle of manifest destiny deftly sidestepping personal responsibility and grandly according the task in one flourish to GOVERNMENT. Please note the equally grand sweep of all the little annoyances like National Defense and such to the bin labelled "pacifist,misguided and wrong-headed". Note the 'Tut-tut" relegation of self-defense against blood-thirsty Islamo-facist nation-states as a waste of precious resources and even "Defeatist"! This person thinks he thinks.
Note the mistake in addressing Jim for a post I made, after dressing down Jim for a mere typo. How very communist of you. Note the reading into my post every cliche there is about government and liberals, while overlooking the fact my ideas are directed at helping the poor become resonsible, to break the chain of generational helplessness. The Jim Bridger, John Wayne approach has only perpetuated the situation throughout history. The few experiments in modern times you write off as failures because some obvious flaws were build into the programs. Instead of seeking to find out how to correct the flaws you advocate going back to the caveman ways. Lots of luck.
His fiery anti-globalization rhetoric, his strong alliance with Fidel Castro, his outreach to Saddam Hussein and Muammar Quaddafi, his anti-Americanism and his sympathetic overtures to Colombia's guerrilla's and other insurgent groups in Latin America have all captured the world's attention.
The National Elections Council invited dozens of members of electoral commissions around the world. In addition, it invited special guests, including filmmaker Michael Moore, linguist Noam Chomsky, politician Ralph Nader, actor Danny Glover, Nobel laureate Nelson Mandela, and a few others.
Danny Glover: What audiences is he to manipulate in Chavez' favor?
What would Duke Wayne think?
re intellectual shorthand
Hey you guys are really into politics and a little too educated for me but I thought I throw in a different angle anyway. I think what this man is doing is no more than boosting the economy to produce jobs and to pacify the poor. Just what the Americans are doing and what the Saudis should have done years ago.
He was legally elected, not strong-armed into office. If he loses the election today, it's the will of the electorate. If not, it's still the electorate. In short, let them make up their own minds without USA's interference.
Well far be it from us to start really caring about the poor people of Venezuela and the "kleptocracy" that has made it one of the poorest/richest countries in the world or the incumbent who has spent billions on anti-US propaganda and world terrorism. Do you suppose that the all-star cast of characters just spontaneously showed up on referrendum day by some "wink from God"? Lordy.
The guy's a terrorist in your mind.
ossobuco wrote:Sigh of relief. And now?
well, may we expect an early reply from the oil industry, the folks and other presidents. Then we should now more....
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