Posted on 04/14/2002 4:01:40 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Chavez's first election in 1998 ended the 40-year stronghold of two traditional parties accused of squandering Venezuela's vast oil wealth and leaving 80 percent of the population in poverty. He then pushed through a new constitution that paved the way for his own re-election in 2000 and elections that gave his allies control of Congress.
Chavez said he was leading "social revolution" against corruption and inequality. Adversaries - business leaders, labor unions and the two traditional parties - accused him of grabbing power and ruining the economy with leftist policies. Months of unrest that followed the coup culminated in two-month strike to force Chavez's resignation. The strike collapsed in February, succeeding only in devastating the economy and costing Venezuela $6 billion. The economy shrank 29 percent in the first three months of 2003. Venezuela's leaderless and demoralized opposition is now trying to organize a referendum to remove Chavez from office. The constitution would allow one in August, the midpoint in his six-year term. The next scheduled elections are in 2006.
From Mexico and Brazil's perspective, it makes sense for Latin America's two largest economies to align more closely in pursuit of shared economic priorities, as in seeking to dismantle U.S., European and Asian agricultural trade barriers. However, Fox's decision to align Mexico with Brazil also reflects his deep frustration for what he perceives as the Bush administration's indifference to his efforts to secure an immigration agreement for Mexican nationals working in the United States.
Fox defined such an agreement at the outset of his government as his foreign policy priority -- the legacy of his presidency. However, more than two years of lobbying have not budged the issue in Washington, especially since Sept. 11. As a result, by aligning Mexico with Brazil, Fox is seeking to rebuild his own battered image inside Mexico, where many critics think he flirted too much with Washington and got nothing in return.
Meanwhile, Fox is playing catch-up with da Silva who, since assuming the presidency less than six months ago, has floated several major initiatives. These include relaunching the South America's Mercosur customs union, negotiating strategic alliances with the Argentine and Venezuelan governments and giving each of those governments $1 billion in credit to finance exports through the state-owned National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES).
Fox's alignment with da Silva in fact could improve U.S.- Brazilian relations, since Mexico would be in a position to bring Brasilia and Washington closer on regional trade-related issues that also interest Mexican investors and exporters. However, a tight alignment on issues that concern Brasilia -- such as Colombia and Cuba -- could bring Mexico into diplomatic conflict with the United States.
The escalating Colombian conflict and its potential impact on the Brazilian Amazon region might worry da Silva. However, he is even more concerned about U.S. military aid flowing into Colombia, and sees the aid as the potential precursor to an expanding U.S. military presence in the Andean region. Like many Brazilians, da Silva and his foreign policy advisers view such a possibility as a threat to their country's territorial integrity along its largely unguarded western borders, where the Andes mountain range starts to rise out of the Amazon rain forest.***
When I asked Bielsa these questions, he replied that the ABC interview had taken place more than a week ago.''I was not foreign minister last week,'' Bielsa told me. ``The [ABC] question specifically referred to the executions, and I felt I had neither the position nor the moral authority to make a judgment.''
And what would you say if I asked you in a broader sense whether Cuba respects human rights?
The foreign minister responded that he will make a judgment on that once he examines the previous government's reasons for changing Argentina's vote at the United Nations from a condemnation of Cuba's human rights abuses to an abstention.''I consider the United States to be a friendly country,'' Bielsa added. ``Argentina has not decided to have an automatic alignment with Cuba and Venezuela to systematically confront the United States in international organizations.''***
Since the arrival of Chavez, Venezuela has signed dozens of cooperation agreements with Cuba, increased cultural exchange and provided subsidized petroleum to the Caribbean nation, much to the chagrin of Venezuelans already unnerved by what they see as Chavez's leftist agenda. Government leaders defend the new cooperation with Cuba as a way of consolidating Venezuela's social changes. But with Cuba once again in the eye of the world, the relationship may prove costly for Chavez.***
"The Humalas follow in the line of Chavez and Gutierrez," said Boris Romero, editor of Sintesis, a financial daily. "They have a left-wing nationalistic message that could work. Ollanta is certainly someone to watch in the 2006 elections."
Antauro Humala insists that everything he does is meant to advance his brother's cause. "Ollanta is like a sharp stone in a tight shoe," Antauro Humala said. "He was reinstated into the army and sent to France out of necessity, to avoid competition." He added: "Ollanta is the word. I am only the preacher."***
At the heart of the dispute lies the pro-Chávez legislators' ability to ease through a half-dozen bills -- all regarded by the opposition as authoritarian and potentially repressive -- held up in a parliamentary commission on which the Chávez supporters are a minority.
One is a media bill criticized by human rights organizations as a direct threat to freedom of expression. Another would add an extra 12 judges to the 20-member supreme court, in what the opposition sees as an attempt to ensure a pro-government majority.
The rule change introduced at Friday's session will allow the Congress to vote on the bills. However, the bitterness of the current dispute casts doubt on the continued functioning of the legislature and on the recent agreement brokered by Organization of American States Secretary General César Gaviria, aimed at resolving the country's political crisis.
…………………….. Several opposition members, however, said the coup was being carried out by the government. They argued that Chávez' slim majority in the legislature, which on some issues is as little as two or three votes, was looking to close down the legislature altogether.
Political analyst Alberto Garrido, author of several books on Chávez, said the issue had little to do with the technicalities of parliamentary rules.
Pointing out that the president had consistently argued for the introduction of ''people's power'' and against representative, liberal democracy, Garrido said Chávez's political project had ``moved to a different level.''
Ameliach announced Friday that such outdoor sessions would be held ``whenever and wherever necessary in order to guarantee the sovereign people [that we are carrying out] our functions as legislators.'' ***
"I'm ugly ... black mixed with Indian, that's me," he said, referring jokingly but proudly to his mixed-race ancestry which he shares with most of Venezuela's population.
"I'm a little uncouth sometimes. What can I do? I'm not going to change," Chavez added, speaking during his weekly "Hello President" television and radio show.
Chavez rose from obscurity to become a national figure in 1992 when he tried to seize power in a botched coup. Launching a political career after two years in jail, he won a landslide election in late 1998, promising a self-styled "revolution" to help his country's poor majority.
But his opponents, who have waged a determined campaign of protests and strikes against him, accuse Chavez of ruling like a dictator and of trying to install Cuba-style communism.
"I am not a communist ... if I was, I would say so," Chavez said. He added this distinguished him from Cuban President Fidel Castro, with whom he has forged a close alliance that has irked the United States, the main buyer of Venezuela's oil.
"Fidel Castro, my friend and brother, is a communist, but Venezuela's project is not communist," Chavez said. "At this moment in Venezuela, the program cannot be a communist one." [End]
In other words, rebuilding shattered world communism in Latin America.
A NewsMax.com investigation has revealed that Garcia, in his role as head of Sao Paulo Forum, controls and coordinates the activities of subversives and extremists from the Rio Grande to the southernmost tip of Argentina. This new axis of terrorism begins in Cuba, then works its way down to Colombia, financed with Venezuelan oil billions, and ends in Lula's Brazil.
In a policy dictated by Havana, Garcia has shown special interest in terrorist Manuel Marulanda Velez, a.k.a. "Tirofijo," leader of the terrorist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Every year since 1990, Garcia has made it his priority to meet with FARC. The meetings have not just taken place in Havana (with Fidel Castro himself being always present), but also in Mexico, where Marco Aurelio Garcia traveled to meet with FARC member Marco Leo Calara on Dec. 5, 2000. What they talk about is a matter that remains behind closed doors. But every time they meet, FARC always increases its attacks in the weeks that follow, with a high cost in loss of human lives.***
And like Chavez, he said he was not a Communist for years. Only after he was secure in his power did he finally tell the truth.
The Supreme Courts of Justice could now be the only alternative left to name all of the Electoral Council or just the fifth, tie-breaking member by omission.
It is possible that whomever the judges end up assigning will be considered a transitory solution. The opposition is wary of transitory government officials, especially after having lost the opportunity to vote on a non-binding referendum in January because Chavez did not consider the Electoral Council's director's term, elected by the Interim National Assembly, legitimate.
The now-dissolved Interim Constitutional Assembly had also appointed the twenty Supreme Court judges who now sit at the Supreme Justice Council in 1999. The transitory body acted in lieu of Venezuela's Congress for close to two years. Its main task had been the approval of a new constitution. The Chavista vote reaching 98 percent of the Interim Assembly, it was not surprising that the constitution got approved with hardly any debate surrounding the major event.***
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