On Sunday Venezuelans will go to the polls to vote for or against an
amendment to the constitution to eliminate the two-term limit on all
elected offices. Both sides
rallied, marched, attended concerts, and participated in motorcades on
Thursday and Friday, to close off their campaigns.
Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets peacefully
this week, in shows of opposition to and of support for a referendum on
a constitutional amendment that is to be held next Sunday.
Violent student protests erupted again Tuesday in at least six major
Venezuelan cities following a week of relative calm, intensifying the
political debate over a proposed constitutional amendment that would
abolish the two-term limit on elected offices.
By James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com, Jan 27th 2009
Fifty-one years to the day after Venezuelans toppled the U.S.-backed
dictatorship of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, tens of thousands of Venezuelans
held marches in Caracas and other major cities last Friday to either
support or oppose a constitutional amendment that would get rid of the
two-term limit on elected officials.
Thousands of university and high school students in Caracas, the states
of Barinas, Lara, Anzoategui, and Sucre, as well as in other cities,
marched yesterday in support of the constitutional amendment to be put
to public vote on February 15.
Violent confrontations related to the campaign for an amendment to
Venezuela's constitution that would abolish the two-term limit on
elected office have taken place in several Venezuelan cities, prompting
the government to proclaim that demonstrators who threaten public
security should be promptly detained by local police.
