And socialism marches on, speaking about the dictator in Venezuela, President Hugo Chavez. Affectionately called here the hemisphere’s idiot. Now he is clearing way to be president for life, ending term limits for himself by changing the constitution he made in 1999. The changes . . .
would strip the Central Bank of all autonomy, allowing the government to spend the country’s foreign reserves. The government would be given power to expropriate private property by decree, and to promote co-operatives and state enterprise.
State governors and mayors will still be subject to term limits—otherwise they might become caudillos, Mr Chávez said recently, without irony. They will be sidelined by new communal councils, dependent on the presidency. Another proposal is to reduce the maximum working day to six hours. “Now we are headed straight towards socialism,†Mr Chávez said. But first the plans must be approved by referendum.
Chavez has come a long way since the corrupted election that put him in office. Jimmy Carter will tell you how corrupt it was, even though he didn’t have the courage to tell the Venezuelan people and the U.N. the truth about it at the time he was ‘overseeing’ it. He took it upon himself to deceive the entire country. But that’s another story. So, one would expect this referendum to pass with a 99 % majority.
Here’s Chavez record on freedom. In his own words. . .
“We have broken the chains of the old, exploitative capitalist system,” said Mr Chavez. “The state now has the obligation to build the model of a socialist economy.”
He has nationalized the oil and energy industries, same with the communications industry including the press and on-air broadcast, put price controls in place on everything from food to fuel. No such thing as private property any more. The result is predictable, no food on the shelves, high (for them) fuel prices. A suppressed media that supports only the Chavez administration keeps the people ignorant and riled up.
Of course there’s no domestic media that considers this newsworthy. It’s the Desperate Socialists club of Chavez, Castro and Putin.
