President Mujica calls for unity and peace for ‘the day when Chavez is not with us’
The shortest and most sober of a day of emotional speeches and promises was that from Uruguayan president Jose Mujica who asked the massive rally in support of President Hugo Chavez that if the Venezuelan leader “tomorrow is not with us”, then unity, peace and work must prevail.
“I respect above all a man who is battling for life and he is in the heart of all of you; that is what makes sense. But if tomorrow he is not with us, unity, peace and work must prevail my dear comrades”, said Mujica on Thursday afternoon.
Mujica who travelled to Caracas on request from the Venezuelan government in his condition of chairman of Mercosur addressed the concentration in support of Chavez from the presidential palace of Miraflores, next to Venezuelan leaders and foreign representatives from Latinamerica and the Caribbean, which also included the presidents of Bolivia, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega from Nicaragua.
“This afternoon there is an excess of words and when feelings are overwhelming, words are incapable of transmitting them, so I beg you let me shut my mouth because I carry many years on my back and I have seen many demonstrations like this one, and it fills my soul of memories and names of people who are no longer among us”, said an emotional Mujica.
He ended his brief message again calling on the people of Venezuela to remain united and in peace in “the event comrade commander Chavez was to depart”.
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Also, while Venezuela very well could do better with a new election process imo because the situation is pretty unclear with Chavez medical state, there is still a difference between a president that falls ill to a president being removed from authority, both countries are in hard internal circunstances without a clear president in charge but the context around both are different. With that said, I still think Paraguay has been unfairly treated by mercosur but this doesn´t mean mercosur should treat Venezuela the same way, one action doesn´t make right the other.
Article 230: The presidential term is six years. The President* of the Republic may be reelected, immediately and once only, to an additional term.
Article 231: The candidate elected* shall take office as President* of the Republic on January 10 of the first year of his constitutional term, by taking an oath before the National Assembly. If for any supervening reason, the person elected President* of the Republic cannot be sworn in before the National Assembly, he shall take the oath of office before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.
Article 235: The absence of the President* of the Republic from the territory of
Venezuela requires authorization from the National Assembly or the Delegated
Committee, when such absence continues for a period exceeding five consecutive days.
Article 237: Annually, within the first ten days following to installation of the National Assembly, in ordinary session, the President* of the Republic, shall present personally to the Assembly a message by which will render account of the political, economic, social and administrative aspects of its administration during the past year.
Isn't Chavez now on his FOURTH Presidential term? A clear breach of the constitution. When will Chavez be appearing before the Supreme Tribunal of Justice? How about rendering an account, in person, before the National Assembly? When will mercosur declare an “interruption of the democratic order”?
Now, I dont want to begin a discussion here, just point my oppinion, my point isn´t the defense of Mercosur actions over Paraguay, my point is that when indeed Paraguay was treated unfairly by Mercosur IMO, in which way will the same treatment over Venezuela , because of Chavez situation ,help Paraguay´s case exactly? especially when you consider both constitutions allow one country to remove their president on serious charges and the other one allows new elections in the case of a president incapable of taking charge because of a terminal illnes? two wrongs DONT make a right IMO.
Paraguay should have been allowed to speak its case inside Mercosur, in the same way, Venezuela should be allowed to normalize its political situation in order with its Constitution.
But in all fairness he was attending as the Chairman of Mercosur, so I think he was stuck with it.
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