• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Chavez dealt blow in parliament elections

Schadenfroh

Schadenfroh

Elite Member
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68P05V20100927
Venezuela's opposition won a third of the seats in parliament and claimed a majority of the popular vote in elections on Sunday
...
Although Chavez's Socialist Party will have a majority in the 165-seat National Assembly, it fell short of its goal of winning the two thirds needed to pass major laws and make appointments to the Supreme Court and election authorities without the support of its foes.
....

With the last results still coming in, however, Chavez was close to the three fifths of seats needed to give him special decree powers with which he could bypass parliament in implementing socialist reforms.
Click to expand...
While I am glad that some of the people are realizing where Venezuela is headed, the last part is rather frightening. Hopefully, he will not get the seats needed to be able to rule by decree. I wonder what would happen if he lost the next presidential election?
 
Why all the Chavez hate? Sean Penn said he was such a nice guy... I hardly doubt Chavez would murder an opposition member just to keep power.
 
SP33Demon said:
lmao. You probably don't know anyone from Venezuela.
Click to expand...

<taps sarcasm meter>

One of my friends knows a girl from Venezuela, she speaks of how Chavez is a power-hungry monster of a tyrant. Then again, she is a white, middle-class Venezuelan, so I suppose she is a member of the evil bourgeoisie that Chavez is trying to liberate the proletariat from?
 
Schadenfroh said:
<taps sarcasm meter>

One of my friends knows a girl from Venezuela, she speaks of how Chavez is a power-hungry monster of a tyrant. Then again, she is a white, middle-class Venezuelan, so I suppose she is a member of the evil bourgeoisie that Chavez is trying to liberate the proletariat from?
Click to expand...

Actually, the 5 people I know from there all despise Chavez as well and are trying to get out of the country. However, the hard part is transferring their wealth to American dollars because Chavez has banned/restricted wealth that is converted to the dollar.

For example, shutting down all the country's brokerages except 20 because everyone was converting to dollar bonds (i.e. anyone who invested with those companies just got wiped out):
The government banned brokerages from buying and selling dollar-denominated bonds and government debt in bolivars since the closing of the market, restricting investment opportunities for their clients and spurring a wave of unemployed traders in Caracas.
Click to expand...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-09-03/chavez-to-close-brokerage-firms-seized-in-crackdown.html

You have no idea of the Authoritarian state of Venezuela and how Chavez is robbing the middle class (e.g. doctors, teachers, scientists, working class) blind and taking it for himself. Actually, anything he wants he just "seizes" in the name of the government and this includes political rivals (turned his mansion into a "public park"), foreign private businesses (golf courses, hotels like the Hilton, food companies, oil rigs), media (tv/radio stations), etc.

Do a Google search for "Chavez seizes" and tell me it's not completely Authoritarian.
For example:

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said he hopes Helmerich & Payne is compensated and suggested the takeover and other recent nationalizations are scaring off private investment in Venezuela.

&#8220;We would just call on them, if they did make such a move, to compensate the owners of those wells,&#8221; Toner said. &#8220;This is the latest in such an instance where international investors, their investments are being nationalized by the government of Venezuela. It doesn&#8217;t speak or bode well for the investment climate there.&#8221;

Helmerich & Payne is not the only oil services company to have complained about a delay in payments. Dallas-based Ensco International Inc. said last year that it had suspended oil drilling operations off Venezuela&#8217;s Caribbean coast because Venezuela owed it $35 million &#8212; prompting PDVSA to take over the company&#8217;s operations.

The government of President Hugo Chavez has nationalized dozens of privately owned companies in recent years as the socialist leader seeks to expand the state&#8217;s role in the economy. Government critics and many business owners argue the takeovers violate private property rights.
Click to expand...
http://www.chandlerswatch.com/2010/06/25/hugo-chavez-seizes-11-u-s-oil-rigs-and-nationalizes-them/
 
Don't get your hopes up for Venezuela yet. He may not have the 2/3 majority for absolute power but his party has still won majority votes. Still a pretty powerful position to be in.

..
 
Most of the people of Venezuela are poor and they support him. He's going to make sure that everybody will be poor equally.
 
Originally Posted by rudder
Why all the Chavez hate? Sean Penn said he was such a nice guy... I hardly doubt Chavez would murder an opposition member just to keep power.
Click to expand...


SP33Demon said:
lmao. You probably don't know anyone from Venezuela.
Click to expand...


Schadenfroh said:
<taps sarcasm meter>

One of my friends knows a girl from Venezuela, she speaks of how Chavez is a power-hungry monster of a tyrant. Then again, she is a white, middle-class Venezuelan, so I suppose she is a member of the evil bourgeoisie that Chavez is trying to liberate the proletariat from?
Click to expand...


I think we have a reading failure going on...I too "Hardly Doubt" that Chavez would kill an opposition member in order to keep his power...in fact, I hardly doubt it so much that I believe it would be a certainty...

(hardly doubt = double negative)
 
Schadenfroh said:
<taps sarcasm meter>

One of my friends knows a girl from Venezuela, she speaks of how Chavez is a power-hungry monster of a tyrant. Then again, she is a white, middle-class Venezuelan, so I suppose she is a member of the evil bourgeoisie that Chavez is trying to liberate the proletariat from?
Click to expand...

Meaningless. People say similar things about all sorts of Politicians. Like the premier of my Province for eg.

Democracy brought Chavez to Power, let it take him out.
 
sandorski said:
Meaningless. People say similar things about all sorts of Politicians. Like the premier of my Province for eg.

Democracy brought Chavez to Power, let it take him out.
Click to expand...

In cases like Chavez, I prefer a more direct route...

vote-from-rooftops.jpg
 
Hah, he couldn't pull it off even after he made changes to the country's constitution to make the incumbents near unbeatable? Times must be tough down there.
 
sandorski said:
It's not funny.
Click to expand...

But it might very well become true, i would not put it past Chavez to keep himself in power with military force if need be.

He's a lot like Italys Berlusconi who has rewritten laws so that he and his associates cannot be prosecuted for crimes they have committed.
 
JohnOfSheffield said:
But it might very well become true, i would not put it past Chavez to keep himself in power with military force if need be.

He's a lot like Italys Berlusconi who has rewritten laws so that he and his associates cannot be prosecuted for crimes they have committed.
Click to expand...

If he does that, then I will criticize him for it. Until then I let Democracy decide.
 
sandorski said:
If he does that, then I will criticize him for it. Until then I let Democracy decide.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure you can call what Venezuela has democracy since the President keeps changing the game to keep opponents out.

What i'm saying is that if the day comes when his game is still not rigged enough to ensure his win then he'll use military force, i'm not saying that military force should NOT be used against him before that happens though.

He should probably be taken out long before he dies of old age and has changed the system so that his offspring will inherit his position.

You do realise that is what he's aiming for, president for life?
 
JohnOfSheffield said:
I'm not sure you can call what Venezuela has democracy since the President keeps changing the game to keep opponents out.

What i'm saying is that if the day comes when his game is still not rigged enough to ensure his win then he'll use military force, i'm not saying that military force should NOT be used against him before that happens though.

He should probably be taken out long before he dies of old age and has changed the system so that his offspring will inherit his position.

You do realise that is what he's aiming for, president for life?
Click to expand...

About the only thing he has suggested(that I'm aware of) is the removal of Term Limits. Hardly something worth getting riled up about IMO.
 
sandorski said:
About the only thing he has suggested(that I'm aware of) is the removal of Term Limits. Hardly something worth getting riled up about IMO.
Click to expand...

He didn't suggest it, he removed the term limits, he removed all free press and outside sources, confiscated news agencies equipment to drive his own propaganda press.

Even Saddam had "free elections".
 
JohnOfSheffield said:
He didn't suggest it, he removed the term limits
Click to expand...

Uhhh no, he didn't. They were voted on. He said if they didn't pass, he'd leave. Voters approved the measure.

he removed all free press and outside sources
Click to expand...

No, he didn't. You don't seem to understand, his violent enemies that make the US look like patty cake politics, the rich - you do understand the far more serious divide between the wealthy and the rest of society in Latin American countries like when Chevez took power that's far worse than the US or UK? - owned all the media except one government station, and they used it worse than Pravda for constant attacking barrages against any public support for him and he put up with that to begin with.

Then a TV station owner participated in a murderous coup, where people were killed to remove him from office. That's a bit much to say 'no problem'.

After that he has evened the odds a bit - I haven't followed it lately, but the last I heard there was a strong presence of opposition media.

If that's changed, I'd be interested in the details and would condemn if he did what you allege, but you understand that I won't consider you an accurate source.

Even Saddam had "free elections".
Click to expand...

Saddam had crooked elections, IIRC he'd get like 99% of the vote. Chavez appears to have some of the more honest elections in the region - they've had independent observers certify them as fair. I don't know if there have been some more minor irregularities, but we have our own problems before we throw too many stones. There is nothing to compare Venezuelan elections to Saddam but dishonesty.
 
JohnOfSheffield said:
But it might very well become true, i would not put it past Chavez to keep himself in power with military force if need be/
Click to expand...

So if Sandorski wouldn't put it past you to commit war crimes - then he should call for you to be executed now, as you have Chevez. Good idea.

He's a lot like Italys Berlusconi who has rewritten laws so that he and his associates cannot be prosecuted for crimes they have committed.
Click to expand...

I'd like to hear more on this.

Got links? Small chance given the rest of your claims, but just in case there's some fire.
 
yllus said:
Hah, he couldn't pull it off even after he made changes to the country's constitution to make the incumbents near unbeatable? Times must be tough down there.
Click to expand...

Here's your logic, with a leftist version of Yllus:

LeftistYluss: There's no way George W. Bush will give up power if a Democrat wins! He's rigged the elections for McCain, and would use the military to keep power!

(Obama wins)

LeftistYllus: HAHA Bush is so hated he couldn't win even with rigged elections!!!!

He'll use the military to keep power!

(Obama takes power)

LeftistYllus: HAHA Bush is so incompetent he couldn't get the military to do what he wanted!

What a jerk Bush is for rigging the elections and trying to use the military, he should have been shot for that! High five JohnofSheffield!

The evidence is ignored by the people making the allegations. Maybe Chavez is doing something terrible, but we can't get that info from the hyenas who are wildly making anything they like up. Maybe he's not.

What we seem to have though are people who are quite susceptible to hating based on being fed propaganda.

I only recall one person here who seemed to have almost any actual information that made these attacks.

As one person explained, though, 'anyone who comes to the US is almost always a member of the small population of rich Venezuelans who hate Chavez for reducing their concentration of wealth.'

There's more to the story, some good some bad I've seen. But just making crap up is not honest.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top