Comments on: Chavez Gets Dictator Status…For 18 Months

By: sid davisson

sid davisson — Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:45:48 +0000

What do they mean” gets dictator status”? He’s been getting status steadily since his election.Chavez,Bush,and Putin have all become more and more authoritarian,autocratic,and dictatorial.All have made things worse for their countries and countrymen.All are bad for their countries.All are bad for the world.

By: Glen Wishard

Glen Wishard — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 01:10:32 +0000

Reading deeper into the links, I see that the so-called “past Venezuelan presidents” who supposedly invoked these powers refers to President Carlos Andres Perez, in 1976! Wow, what a precedent.

That was, as I said, was under a completely different constitution. I doubt if Chavez will claim Perez as a precedent. Chavez launched a bloody coup attempt against him in 1992, during Perez’s second term as president.

Perez was later a senator, and Chavez may have dissolved the Venezuelan Senate just to get rid of him. Today, like so many others, Perez lives in exile.

By: Glen Wishard

Glen Wishard — Mon, 22 Jan 2007 00:44:55 +0000

The constitution of Venezuela was written in 1999 by a Constituent Assembly that was 95% composed of a pro-Chavez political alliance that called itself the Patriotic Axis.

To silence any opposition to the new constitution, the Constituent Assembly set up “emergency committees” that disposed of over 150 unfriendly judges. A seven-member committee assumed all legislative powers while the constitution was being written, and the National Assembly was forbidden to meet. The new constitution would strip the National Assembly of most of its powers, including the power to appoint judges, and would give the president the power to suspend it virtually at will.

The new constitution renamed the country to “The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” – after Simon Bolivar, of course – and is one of the longest constitutions ever written, essentially writing Chavez’s political agenda into constitutional law.

The claim that previous presidents used these powers is false, as Chavez is the only president to have “served” under this constitution, which is his constitution. Unless you count Pedro Carmona, who ran the country for 2 whole days in April 2002.

By: Gratis

Gratis — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 19:23:04 +0000

Thanks, ew01. The story was a lot scarier than the reality.

By: tuki8eblom

tuki8eblom — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 08:13:41 +0000

I ‘ll agree to that: at least it was voted on… unlike President Bush’s assertion that he has the power to bypass laws enacted by the senate for the sake of U.S. security – as he understands it.

By: wj

wj — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 03:08:56 +0000

“Packed” is a bit misleading when speaking of the Venezuelan Assembly. Yes, it’s 100% Chavez supporters. But the reason for that is the opposition boycotted the last election.

Am I the only one who can’t quite see the rationale for boycotting an election? Yes, it may be rigged. But if you don’t play, you can’t win. In fact, you abandon any chance of influencing events at all. It may be a slim chance . . . but slim is still bigger than none.

By: Justin Gardner

Justin Gardner — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 16:52:22 +0000

Thanks for the link ew01. Hope you don’t mind me reprinting those points here…

> The Venezuelan Assembly has actually only opened up hearings on the proposed law.

> If approved, the president would be limited in what it could ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…â€œdecree.ÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã‚? Basically overseeing the functions of executive branch agencies. Pretty much the rights that U.S. presidents have always had.

> These powers are already granted by the Venezuelan constitution. And

> This ainÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢t the first time theyÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢ve been exercised. In fact, the last president of Venezuela activated these powers too.

Put in that context, this story is much, much different. I don’t like Chavez or his rhetoric, but that BBC story was incredibly misleading.

By: firebrand

firebrand — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:24:00 +0000

Yeah, it was voted on. By a Congress packed 100% full with Chavistas. In other words, they rubber-stamp what he wants. So they did technically vote on it, but the vote was meaningless.

By: ew01

ew01 — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 13:23:23 +0000

These reports don’t get it eactly right. I’m writing a lot about this on my site, and the important thing to keep in mind is these powers are pretty limited & past Venezuelan presidents have excercized the same authority–it’s protected in their constitution. That would be some fairly important context for the bbc to mention!

Here’s a link to more:
http://www.borev.net/2007/01/bush_administration_opposes_ex.html