Venezuela: There is no looking Back

Venezuelan voters face a cliffhanger referendum on Sunday Dec.2 on constitutional reforms that could bolster President Hugo Chavez’s grip on power. Draped in red, the pro-reform Chavez partisans are drumming up support throughout Venezuela. But the proposed changes have sparked doubt even among his staunch followers in the shanty towns. Opponents, led by university students, have staged frequent street demonstrations which police have brutally broken up with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Chavez, a 53-year-old former paratrooper, is trying to push through controversial changes allowing him to run for re-election indefinitely, to impose emergency media censorship, and to further consolidate power by choosing regional officials. Venezuela’s firebrand leader also wants to enshrine his Bolivarian revolutionary ideals by declaring Venezuela a “socialist” state, taking over the central bank and permitting authorities to expropriate private property - mirroring communist Cuba under Fidel Castro, whom Chavez admires and calls “father”.

The importance of Venezuela - an OPEC member and one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the United States - has focused international attention on Sunday’s referendum. Washington, which Chavez accuses of being behind a failed 2002 coup against him, has watched uncomfortably as the firebrand Venezuelan leader has brought other Latin American nations into his camp, including Ecuador, Chile and Nicaragua.

Source: France24