This article explores how over the past decade Venezuela’s National Electoral Council has transformed Venezuela’s electoral system to the point where the opposition who spent years trying to discredit the country’s national electoral body now ask it to organize their own internal elections.
This past Tuesday, the Venezuelan National Assembly passed new legislation reforming the country’s laws on organised crime and terrorism. The legislation widens the number of crimes under its competence and also increases maximum sentences for offenses.
By Correo del Orinoco International , Jan 27th 2012
This week Venezuelan opposition forces demonstrated a false showing of unity against President Hugo Chavez in preparation for next October’s presidential elections.
Leopoldo Lopez has withdrawn from the opposition presidential primaries, deferring his support to the current governor of Miranda state, Henrique Capriles Radonski.
By Correo del Orinoco International, Jan 22nd 2012
As governor of Zulia, Perez has been accused of helping Colombian paramilitary forces enter the country as part of destabilization plans aimed at toppling the Chavez government. Earlier this year, neighboring Apure State Governor Ramon Carrizalez accused Perez of using his role in office to “make frequent trips into and out of Colombia” and “making agreements to bring in paramilitaries to sow anxiety and violence in the region”.
For the sector of society that has it all and no one has taken it from them, the real problem is that a “zambo” [a person of mixed African and native American origin] governs them.
Thousands of Venezuelans gathered outside the country's National Assembly (AN) on Saturday to hear President Chavez give his annual speech to the nation. Each year the Venezuelan president is obliged to give an "annual report" to the legislative body accounting for the management of his government and detailing its setbacks and achievements throughout the past year.
Venezuela's opposition once again appears to be withering on a vine that has not taken root since President Chavez was first elected 12 years ago. The men who would be president this year are little more than plastic media candidates, reading scripts written by their funding source in the U.S. State Department. They offer no real challenge to the Chavez administration for several reasons. The first is due to the success of the Bolivarian Revolution or in a word, socialism.
Leopoldo Lopez Mendoza comes from one of Venezuela’s wealthiest families and is known for his “good-boy” looks and extreme right-wing agenda. Lopez has been an anti-Chavez media favorite for his “heroic” negation of a decision by Venezuela’s Comptroller General barring him from holding office until 2014 for acts of corruption committed while he was mayor of Caracas municipality Chacao and during his time as a state employee of PDVSA.
"One of the most visible, vocal and controversial leaders in Latin America" (according to the BBC), Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez receives much attention from the British media. Frequent news reports, alluding to government 'attacks' on democracy and press freedom, and discussing the nationalisation of assets, create an impression of a 'regime' which asserts too much power.
