Pro-Chavez party Podemos is suffering the consequences of sticking
to its principles and trying to run an independent political line form
the Government. Podemos’ argument is absolutely correct
in that they say the National Assembly is violating the Venezuelan
Constitution, because by now they are considering two separate Constitutional reform projects
in its third discussion: The first one is Chavez’ which was part of the
first and second discussion and consulted with the people, even if it
was done in arbitrary fashion, while the second one is that cooked up
suddenly by the Assembly, which are 25 new articles, not discussed in
the first two discussions, and which are being sneaked in into the third
discussion without discussing their content or even titles as very clearly specified
in the Venezuelan Constitution. The Podemos argument is
correct, the Assembly could have modified articles to make them
consistent with Chavez’ proposal, but not by introducing major
modifications like it is now trying to do. In fact, the main argument
brought forward by Chavismo, when it was suggested that the referendum
be voted in parts was that Chavez’ proposal was an integral one and
since he was proposing it he also had the right to ask that it all be voted
all at once. All of these arguments, which were spurious in that
context anyway, have now been invalidated. There is no “single”
proposal to vote on anymore and their earlier reading of Article 344 of the Venezuelan Constitution is now a moot argument. Podemos
was punished today for their dissidence, with the President of the
National Assembly arguing they were out of order, as they would get up
on each article not proposed by Chavez and say that this was
unconstitutional. Deputy Molina was simply shut up by Ms. Flores in the
best expression of the sad state of democracy in Venezuela, when a
Parliament composed only of Chavez' supporters does not even allow a
discussion among themselves. Even Deputy Paez, who is not from Podemos,
stormed out of the Capitol building when Ms. Flores denied her the
right to speak. Podemos
was being encouraged to vote in favor of articles repeatedly by various
Chavista Deputies, but they refused to budge. When told they were
betraying those that voted them in, Deputy Ismael Garcia said that they
did not vote him in to violate the Constitution. When told that if he
did not vote for the next article he would have proven he had jumped
sides, Garcia said that he would not allow them to blackmail him with
these arguments. In the end Podemos was told that they were not even
going to be given the right to say anything anymore. Thus, as Chavismo continues to talk about more “democracy”
and “participation”, they continue to approve articles not only in
illegal fashion, but also in a very fascist manner, refusing to discuss
anything, even among a 100% pro-Chavez Assembly. But even worse, the contents of what is being approved imply
less democracy, fewer rights and less freedom, as I discussed a few
days ago. At the same time they also are making some actions, like calling for a
recall referendum, more difficult and even restricting what questions a
referendum may call for. And then, of course,
there is the ultimate fascist act, the illegal introduction of the new
article removing rights in a state of exception, which is also illegal
because it violates international law, as well as being illegal because
the Venezuelan Constitution guarantees the “progresividad” of human
rights. That is, you can give more rights to the people, but you can’t
reduce them. Meanwhile, the cheerleading
continues by the paid and unpaid supporters of the Government, which
have the audacity to stick their necks out to defend the indefensible.
What do they call this? Autocratic democracy?
11:52:01 PM 
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