Treason Afoot
By Pejman Yousefzadeh Posted in Authoritarianism | Contra Tyrannum | Dictatorship | Hugo Chavez | Tyranny — Comments (0) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Venezuelan dictator President, Hugo Chavez, has decided to call out his opponents in the final stretch run before a national referendum:
President Hugo Chavez warned his supporters on Friday that anyone voting against his proposed constitutional changes would be a "traitor," rallying his political base before a referendum that would let him seek unlimited re-election in 2012 and beyond.
Brandishing a little red book listing his desired 69 revisions to Venezuela's charter, Chavez exhorted his backers to redouble their efforts toward a victorious "yes" vote in the Dec. 2 ballot.
"He who says he supports Chavez but votes 'no' is a traitor, a true traitor," the president told an arena packed with red-clad supporters. "He's against me, against the revolution and against the people."
His speech followed the recent high-profile defection of his former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel, a longtime ally who called the president's proposed reforms a "coup." Others have also broken with the Chavista movement in recent months, including politicians of the small left-leaning party Podemos.
Well, either there are a lot of traitors about or the people of Venezuela have just decided to tune Chavez out:
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his lead eight days before a referendum on ending his term limit, an independent pollster said on Saturday, in a swing in voter sentiment against the Cuba ally.
Forty-nine percent of likely voters oppose Chavez's proposed raft of constitutional changes to expand his powers, compared with 39 percent in favor, a survey by respected pollster Datanalisis showed.
Just weeks ago, Chavez had a 10-point lead for his proposed changes in the OPEC nation that must be approved in a referendum, the polling company said.
Despite the swing, company head Luis Vicente Leon said he did not rule out a comeback by the popular president.
Chavez has trounced the opposition at the polls on average once a year and can deploy a huge state-backed machinery to get out the vote, Leon said.
Still, the survey was the latest blow to Chavez. He has suffered a series of defections over his plan, including an ex-defense minister who had restored him to power after a brief 2002 putsch but who called Chavez's reforms a new "coup."
"The debate over voting 'yes' or 'no' has burst into the very heart of Chavez's support base," Leon said in an interview. "We can see moderate Chavez backers ready to vote 'no' even though they like him."
Hope springs eternal and here's hoping that the people of Venezuela reject this latest authoritarian effort at a power grab. Few things would be nicer than seeing Chavez taken down a peg or two. In the meantime, it would be quite prudent to closely examine the nature of the balloting in Venezuela and ensure that the Chavez political intimidation machine does not try to pull any funny business in the run-up to the vote. It's not as if Chavez and his supporters are above that sort of thing, after all.