Change Chavez Can Believe In


Women protest in front of riot police officers during a demonstration against Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez in Caracas, Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008. Hundreds of Venezuelans protested against a Supreme Court ruling barring a list of mostly opposition candidates from running in state and local elections in November. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is making preparations for state and local elections in November by turning back a referendum Venezuelans passed in December 2007. He has blacklisted all his political opponents. The target of Hugo Chavez is freedom and democracy, and citizens are taking to the streets in protest.

Just before his ability to make laws without the approval of legislators expires, temporary powers given to him 18 months ago, Chavez made 26 decrees that effectively neuter any chance for democracy to bloom, paving the way for a communist state. Speaking of the protesters . . .

Chavez said in a speech Wednesday night that their concerns are grossly overblown. “This is a democracy. They call me a tyrant – tyrants govern without laws. We’re making laws, and all those laws are for the benefit of the country,” Chavez said.

No doubt taking tips from his communist buds Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro, Chavez’s idea of change is from a socialist state (he has already nationalized key industries in Venezuela) to a communist state.

link: Venezuelans Protest Chavez’s New Socialist Push

related link: A Change in Chávez?