Disagreements in the Venezuelan opposition ranks as whether to vote or not in Sunday’s regional elections for state governors, mayors and councils are also confusing the general public. Opposition spokesmen are predicting electoral fraud even before the elections have taken place.
On Sunday, October 31, millions of Venezuelans will go to the polls to elect governors of the country’s 24 states and mayors for 337 municipal councils. This election offers the possibility for the Bolivarian movement to take control of some key states and local councils.
All Revolutionary activities must be done with not only with the symbolism of the act, or the motivation for the act in mind but also with the end result in mind. Those arguing for the amnesty of those detained for toppling the Columbus statue do not understand the danger of the act or of the damage it has done to the Bolivarian government.
By Jonah Gindin – Venezuelanalysis.com, Oct 11th 2004
Venezuela’s revolution has entered a new stage. This new stage is characterized by a dialectical shift from the defensive politics that subordinated everything else to the defence of the revolution, to a return to the creative dialogue that Chávez’ proceso initially represented.
By Elizabeth DiNovella - The Progressive, Oct 4th 2004
Rosita Toro is a thirty-six-year-old teacher with a ponytail and big brown eyes. She arrived at her polling place in Caracas at 2:45 a.m. on August 15. I spoke to her about four hours later while she was still waiting in a line that stretched for half a mile. "I think this is a historic process," she told me. And it was.
By Mark Weisbrot, David Rosnick, and Todd Tucker - CEPR, Sep 20th 2004
An analysis of a paper presented by the economists Hausmann and Rigobon, who claimed to have found evidence of fraud, finds that they provide no evidence of fraud. This concurs with the findings of the Carter Center (September 17).
By Gregory Wilpert – Venezuelanalysis.com, Sep 15th 2004
Venezuela’s presidential recall referendum was one of Latin America’s most historic electoral events of the past twenty five years. The vote contributes to the future direction of other progressive projects throughout the world because Chavez and his Bolivarian Project have, despite their flaws, opened the door for a progressive alternative to neo-liberal globalization.
An end must be put to authoritarian interference and the false even-handedness between an opposition which holds democracy in contempt and a government which has done everything in its power to deepen democracy whilst fully respecting human rights and freedom of expression.
We were disappointed to learn that on Friday, September 10th, President Bush issued a determination that the United States intends to take action against Venezuela for allegedly not standing strongly against human trafficking.
By Bart Jones - National Catholic Reporter, Sep 8th 2004
What seems clear in the wake of Chávez’s stunning victory is that there will be no fundamental retreat in his “Bolivarian Revolution.” But the referendum has not resolved the country’s tensions.
For the opposition it is obvious that it’s absolutely impossible that the Chavez’s government can count on the support of the majority of the population. It is simply a matter of an epistemological impossibility.
Address by Historian Margarita López Maya to representatives of the Venezuelan State on the occasion of the ratification Hugo Chávez Frías as president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, following the referendum held on Sunday, 15 August 2004.
Opponents of President Hugo Chávez have claimed that fraud thwarted their recent attempt to remove him from office in a recall referendum. Venezuela's election agency declared that Mr Chávez won the referendum by 59% to 41%. How can we assess these competing claims?
A transcendental electoral victory by the Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez—his eighth in less than five years—crowned an unwritten journey in the political history of Venezuela and of popular democratic participation.
Strange dictator this Hugo Chávez. Masochistic and suicidal: he created a Constitution that permits the people to throw him out, and he risked this occurring in a recall referendum.
