Posted on 11/15/2003 2:25:35 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
CARACAS - The National Electoral Council on Friday ruled that Venezuelans living abroad cannot sign petitions to recall President Hugo Chávez, in effect disenfranchising thousands of government opponents who live in South Florida.
The decision came after weeks of pleading by opposition leaders to allow Venezuelans abroad to participate in the Nov. 28-Dec. 1 signature drive.
Council vice president Ezequiel Zamora said three council members approved the ruling while the two others abstained, arguing the decision was unconstitutional.
The council is made up of two pro-Chávez members, two opposition sympathizers and a ''neutral'' president.
Tens of thousands of Venezuelans have moved abroad, many to South Florida, to avoid the leftist politics and economic policies that Chávez has introduced since his last election in 2000.
Council officials said the ruling was based on the belief that it would be logistically impossible to supervise sign-ups abroad.
The same decision applies to Nov. 21-24 drives planned by Chávez supporters seeking recalls against 38 opposition legislators.
Government officials assert only 26,500 registered voters are living abroad , but opposition leaders say the figure is closer to 100,000. Opponents must gather more than 2.4 million signatures to force the referendum on removing Chávez from office.
The council is made up of three pro–Chavez members and calls the shots.
Venezuela's Gathering Marxist Storm - Who Is Protecting Hugo Chavez? ***Last year a popular but disorganized opposition movement in Venezuela threatened the government of Hugo Chavez, the self-styled populist who has taken that nation's battered political economy on a strange journey into social chaos after gaining power in 1999. In March of last year, Insight predicted the ouster of Chavez and he was forced out of office. But a bizarre combination of factors returned this protégé of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro to power.
More than a year later, experts on Latin America tell this magazine that Washington's soft line on Chavez in Venezuela adversely is affecting U.S. security and the stability of the entire region. This hands-off policy toward Chavez seems to originate from the highest levels of the Bush administration, these foreign-policy specialists say, and has evolved to the point of negligence of a crisis that already constitutes the greatest threat to regional stability since Castro took power in Cuba in 1959. Indeed, even as Congress has been intent upon removing travel restrictions to Castro's island prison, say these regional specialists, the Cuban leader is working with Chavez to destabilize governments in the region.
A senior U.S. official who worked in Venezuela during the rise of Chavez speaks with grudging admiration of the Venezuelan leader's classic Marxist-Leninist approach to expanding power: two steps forward, one step back. "Chavez is constantly underestimated by people who do not understand his patient, methodical approach to recruiting and strategy," says this retired Army officer. "Chavez never provokes the U.S. or other nations, but instead works obliquely to erode the position of his enemies."
As an example of Chavez's successful approach, the official cites U.S. Ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) John Maisto, a former ambassador to Venezuela and Nicaragua. He reports that Maisto was the chief exponent of what the source calls the absurd argument that Chavez is a democrat at heart and that the United States should not "push" Chavez into the arms of Castro. "Maisto did the same thing in Nicaragua," says the official, "until Washington lit a fire under him." In fact, this observer says, Chavez has been a radical all his life, influenced by Marxist and authoritarian political theorists, and has been expanding his influence in the region using his links to Cuba and terrorist groups in the Middle East [see "Fidel May Be Part of Terror Campaign," Dec. 3, 2001, and "Fidel's Successor in Latin America," April 30, 2001]. ***
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.