MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Electoral retaliation in Venezuela
The elections are not ordered or decreed, they are called. And is that the Venezuelan regime, with this new nonsense, does nothing but reveal the murder, not only of people who think differently in such atrocious ways as executing them extrajudicially -with a complete army against half dozen of people- to silence and chastise, but also murder of fundamental democratic and republican principles while trampling the country's constitution. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesToo much talk of the constitution -- there is no constitution, and hasn't been since Chavez came to power. They may maintain the fiction of a constitutional democracy, but Venezuela is a dictatorship -- the only thing that matters in elections is who counts the votes. Maduro and his socialists will remain in power by whatever means they think necessary, until they are removed by force.
Jan 25th, 2018 - 04:09 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Lula is trying to take Brazil along the same path that VZ has already gone. And those who oppose him are the horrible 'elite'....I suppose that Congress (that decides the direction in where the country will go) has nothing to do with it....C'mon Reekie, TH, we need your valuable input.
Jan 25th, 2018 - 06:19 pm - Link - Report abuse +2I disagree with Bisley about the constitution - they were following it until last year - but how else can you interpret: “Maduro ended up remembering that they would resort to arms if necessary, in order to defend the Bolivarian Revolution”? They will remain in power by whatever means they think necessary.
Jan 25th, 2018 - 11:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0@DT
Jan 26th, 2018 - 04:38 pm - Link - Report abuse 0“...they were following it until last year...” until 2017 ? don't think so. Every time the Constitution, or the Law, went against Maduro's interests, he either ignored it, or changed it.
@JB
Jan 26th, 2018 - 07:27 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry, no, until 2016. I forgot we've started a new year now, time goes quickly. I was thinking of when the Chavistas lost control of the National Assembly for the first time; until then they had always had control of the government and could make ordinary laws as they wanted.
So over what things did Maduro ignore or change the constitution before 2016?
@DT
Jan 27th, 2018 - 07:34 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The Chavistas lost control of the Nat'l Assembly (112 to 55) in the last session of Dec 2015, but it was in the same session, while still the majority, they voted to substitute 13 of the 32 Supreme Court judges. Altho Maduro openly only disrespected the Constitution in 2016, the causes go back to 2015.
With an opposition dominated Nat’l Ass as of Jan 2016, Maduro then had the SC annul the election of 3 opposition deputies, as well as reject their appeals, in order to reduce the opposition to less than the required 2/3 majority needed to remove govt officials, to approve new laws, or to replace SC justices.
At the end of March 2017, Maduro’s SC ruled to remove power from the Natl Ass, and they, the SC would take over parliamentary functions ; This was revoked 3 days later, due to warnings fm the Defense Council that it would create chaos (more than already existed ?); that was when Att. Gen'l Luisa Ortega Diaz turned against Maduro and left the country.
In May 2017, Maduro then announced he would call for a “popular” constituent assembly, so the ‘people’ (read ‘Maduro’) could re-write the Constitution, not the Nat’l assembly (currently dominated by the opposition);
In July 2017, the Natl Assembly voted for a new, parallel SC (intended to force Maduro to cancel the constituent assembly) but days later, end July, Maduro had the SC vote to restrict the Nat’l Assembly’s powers, and ordered SEBIN (Bolivarian Intelligence Service) to invade the homes of many of the judges of the recently elected (parallel) SC, arrested a few and intimidated the others (threats of jail) ; many went into hiding.
His latest gimmick was to ban the main opposition parties from participating in the next (rigged) presidential elections because they had boycotted the 2017 municipal elections, claimed to be fraudulent, with the intention of giving Maduro the overwhelming majority of votes in the constituent assembly …to guarantee his permanence in power.
@JB
Jan 29th, 2018 - 12:12 am - Link - Report abuse 0Sounds like I wasn't far wrong, only it started a little earlier than I remembered. The current constitution was created under Chavez, so it's rather odd they'd feel the need to change it now. Obviously it is just a way to stay in power now their popularity is waning and they can't be sure to win at the ballot box.
@DT
Jan 29th, 2018 - 05:49 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Obviously......Maduro only wants to change the part of the constitution where it says that the people are who should decide the future of the country, through free elections...
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