Latin America:
Constitutional Reforms Vest Sovereignty in the People, Block US Imperialist Interference

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Ecuador:
Millions Vote for Constituent Assembly
Historic Victory in Ecuador: Left Triumphs, Nation's Institutions to be Transformed
Challenges Facing Correa's Government and the New Constituent Assembly

Bolivia:
Constituent Assembly Crisis

Venezuela:
Advances in Constitutional Reform
Chavez Outlines Social, Economic Structure for Venezuelan Socialism
Venezuela Responds to US Secretary of Defence

First Steps Taken to Establish South American Parliament

Millions Vote for Constituent Assembly

Millions of Ecuadorians went to 37,000 polling stations across the country at the end of September to elect a Constituent Assembly. The 9.3 million registered voters in Ecuador chose 130 assembly members out of 3,229 candidates, local media said. Among the 130 assembly seats, 100 went to provincial representatives, 24 to nationwide representatives and the remaining six to representatives of Ecuadorians overseas.

            The election to the Constituent Assembly followed two rounds of voting in the presidential election and a referendum that cleared the way for the creation of the Constituent Assembly.

            The Constituent Assembly will start work on October 31 and will have 180 days – a mandate that can be extended by 60 days – to write a draft constitution that will be put to a referendum in 2008.

            The creation of the assembly was initiated by Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa who said the assembly was a key component to make Ecuador a more just country.

(Source: China Daily)

 

Roger Burbach*, Counterpunch, October 1, 200

"We have won an historic victory," proclaimed President Rafael Correa of Ecuador. On Sunday, the political coalition he heads won an overwhelming majority of the seats in the Constituent Assembly that is tasked with " refounding" the nation's institutions. Taking office early this year in a landslide victory, Correa has repeatedly called for an opening to a "new socialism of the twenty-first century”, declaring that Ecuador has to end "the perverse system that has destroyed our democracy, our economy and our society”. His government marks the emergence of a radical anti-neo-liberal axis in South America, comprising Venezuela, Bolivia and now Ecuador.

            "The Assembly elections are a devastating blow for the oligarchs and the right wing political parties who have historically pulled the strings on a corrupt state that includes Congress and the Supreme Court," says Alejandro Moreano, a sociologist and political analyst at the Andean University Simon Bolivar in Quito. Even Michel Camdesseus, the former director of the International Monetary Fund, once commented that Ecuador is characterised "by an incestuous relation between bankers, political-financial pressure groups and corrupt government officials”.

            The victory in the Constituent Assembly is the result of years of agitation and struggle by Ecuador's indigenous and social movements along with an unorganised, largely middle-class movement of people known as the "forajidos”, an Ecuadorian term meaning outlaws or bandits who rebel against the established system. In March when the Congress and the right wing political parties tried to sabotage the elections for the Assembly, tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Quito, blocking the entrances to Congress and backing the disbarment of the Congressional members who wanted to suppress the elections.

            The "Country Movement”, the popular political coalition lead by Correa, will convene the Assembly at the end of October. Its charge is to draft a new constitution that will break up the dysfunctional state, establish a plurinational, participatory democracy, reclaim Ecuadorian sovereignty, and use the state to create social and economic institutions that benefit the people. One of its first acts will be to abolish the existent Congress.

            The Assembly will also facilitate an international realignment of Ecuador's international relations. The Correa government has already moved assertively in its relations with the United States. María Fernanda Espinosa, the dynamic Minister of Foreign Relations, declared that Ecuador intends to close the US military base located at Manta, the largest of its kind on South America's Pacific coast. "Ecuador is a sovereign nation," she said. "We do not need any foreign troops in our country." The treaty for the base expires in 2009 and will not be renewed .

            Thus far there have been no direct confrontations with the United States, but the Pentagon has manifested its displeasure. Every year since 1959, the US Southern Command, together with the Pacific coast nations of South America, have undertaken joint naval exercises called Unitas. This year they were to be hosted in Ecuador, but the United States opted to conduct them in Colombia, its closest regional ally. Ecuador responded by announcing it would not participate in this year's exercises, with Correa proclaiming, "It appears the Southern Command believes we are a colony of the United States, that our navy is just one more unit controlled by their country."

            Correa is also standing up to Occidental Petroleum, a US-based corporation whose Ecuadorian holdings were taken over by state-owned PetroEcuador last year for selling off some of its assets to a Canadian company in violation of its contract with the Ecuadorian state. With the takeover of Occidental's holdings, PetroEcuador now controls more than half of the country's petroleum exports, which themselves account for about 40% of Ecuador's total exports and one third of government revenues. Correa has denounced Occidental's "lobbying" of the Bush administration to regain its holdings. "We are not going to allow an arrogant, portentous transnational that doesn't respect Ecuadorian laws to harm our country," he said.

            At the same time, Ecuador is negotiating special bilateral trade and economic agreements with presidents Chávez and Morales. Venezuela has agreed to refine Ecuadorian oil and help fund social programmes in Ecuador, while the Bolivian government has concluded an agreement to import foodstuffs from small- and medium-size producers in Ecuador. Correa has also signed several petroleum accords with Venezuela, of which the most important is a $4 billion project for a refinery backed by PetroEcuador and the Venezuelan state petroleum company.

            Alejandro Moreano of the Andean University worries that "all of the interests involved in the Country Movement may not back the tough steps needed to end neo-liberalism and bring the banks and multinationals under control. This will depend on the strength of popular mobilisations as the Assembly undertakes its work." For his part Correa has repeatedly denounced the private banks in Ecuador for their exorbitant profit-taking and high interest rates. And he has expelled Ecuador's World Bank representative for meddling in the country's affairs and has virtually terminated the country's relations with the International Monetary Fund.

            There is already a steady drumbeat by the indigenous and popular movements to have the Constituent Assembly take over all multinational mining interests. In early June, the local populace in the gold-mining southern highland province of Azuay, backed by environmental and human rights organisations, blockaded major highways, demanding the expropriation of the mining companies, many of which are controlled by transnational corporations that have polluted local rivers and aquifers. Alberto Acosta, an internationally renowned anti-neo-liberal economist who will be president of the Constituent Assembly, met with the protesters. He told them the mining concessions couldn't be annulled outright. "This is a task of the Constituent Assembly," he said. "It can establish a legal framework that will enable us to revise all the concessions." This month on October 22 a national mobilisation will take place that will call upon the Assembly to nationalise all foreign mining interests in the country.

* Roger Burbach is director of the Centre for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley. He is co-author with Jim Tarbell of Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire, His latest book is: The Pinochet Affair: State Terrorism and Global Justice.

Eric Toussaint, Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM), October 15, 2007

Within less than a year Rafael Correa has won four election battles (the two rounds of the presidential elections at the end of 2006, a referendum on the election of a constituent assembly in April 2007, and elections of the constituent assembly members on 30 September 2007).

            While all right-wing parties had been campaigning to block Rafael Correa's party, calling it a communist threat, 'Alianza Pais' won 70 to 80 seats out of 130, which means it can count on a comfortable majority to draft and vote through the new constitution. Moreover it should be able to rely on the support of such left-wing movements as MPD ["Popular Democratic Movement"] and Pachakutik to introduce in-depth democratic changes into the country's political structure. Election results for the constituent assembly are more favourable to change than in Bolivia where President Evo Morales's party and supporting movements do not total the two thirds of seats required for a new constitution to be voted in. This may explain the current political deadlock in that other Andean country.

            Even the large media, a vast majority of which had clearly sided against Rafael Corréa during the election campaign, now prudently seem ready to change tack. The parties they supported have been so overwhelmingly disavowed that they (temporarily at least) tune down their attacks against the president and his party. Indeed the right-wing and centre-right parties (Christian democrats – UDC – and social democrats – ID) were completely crushed. PRIAN, the party of the banana tycoon Alvaro Noboa, who had been defeated by Rafael Corréa at the second ballot for the presidential elections last year, will not get more than 5 percent of the constituents' seats. The Social Christian Party, a traditional pillar of the Right, is thoroughly routed. Former president Lucio Gutierez just managed to save 15 to 18 seats. This took them by surprise since poll surveys predicted modest scores for the candidates that Correa supported. The cautious evolution of the media is however still limited and they give very little air time to Rafael Corréa or the leaders of his party. The President speaks on the radio every Saturday. Various private and community radios broadcast his speech live. A public radio and television channel will open in a few weeks' time.

            Economist Alberto Acosta, whom I met a couple of days ago, says that the new constituents are faced with a very tight schedule. They will have to draft a new constitution within six months. 45 days later a referendum will be organised on the proposed text. The last months in 2007 and the year 2008 are full of democratic ballots: referendum on the content of the constitution as well as most probably election of a new parliament and new presidential election. Indeed Rafael Correa is said to want to bring his presidential mandate to a premature close (long before its normal conclusion at the end of 2010), so as to further buttress his popular support and to begin a mandate under the terms of the new constitution. If this scenario goes through, if the Ecuadorian democracy is not smothered by a military coup, by the end of 2008 Ecuador might have a new democratic constitution, a new parliament (in which Correa's party could presumably count on a majority of seats which is not currently the case) and a newly elected president. This opens the way for what could be to far-reaching economic and social reforms.

            Alberto Acosta, one of the former leaders in the campaign for the cancellation of the debt,[1] is likely to chair the new constituent assembly. He will suggest that they work in thematic commissions and in plenary meetings. In so far as the public debt is concerned, he intends to invite the Commission for a Comprehensive Audit of Internal and External Public Debt (CAIC in Spanish) to participate in the sessions of the constituent assembly's economic commission. The new constitution could include a clear definition of the conditions under which the State government and local authorities are allowed to contract public debts, as well as repudiating odious debts and fixing a maximum amount which can be used for reimbursing debts. For instance the constitution could specify that the part of the State budget devoted to paying back the debt can never exceed the amount allocated to education and health.

            A few days after the election victory of 30 September 2007, Rafael Corréa's government announced that oil companies operating in the country would have to pay a larger share of their benefits to the State. This should bring the State slightly over one billion dollars additional revenue, which could be devoted to social expenditure.

            This measure is highly appreciated by the population. Furthermore, Rafael Correa's government wants the banks to lower their interest rates, which are currently very high. A few months ago parliament, still with a right-wing majority, voted against a bill lowering interest rates. The parliament has become most unpopular. Surveys carried out after September 30 indicate that the majority of the electors are in favour of the current parliament resigning and being replaced by the constituent assembly.

            The population expects a lot from Rafael Correa. His radical discourse has persuaded most Ecuadorians that a fundamental change is both necessary and possible if the president has a clear majority. President Rafael Correa wants to drastically reduce the portion of the budget allotted to repaying the country's public debt. At the same time he wants to increase social expenditure. Will he actually suspend payment of some debts in 2008? Will he repudiate the many odious and illegitimate debts the country is burdened with?[2] This is not at all certain, and this for a number of reasons. The main one is that with higher oil revenues the government considers it can still repay the debt while gradually increasing social expenditure. As indicated above, in order to implement this policy it has raised the portion of the revenues that oil companies are to pay to the state and it has decided to borrow on internal and external markets so as to restructure old debts. The latter policy is hardly advisable since it does not take into account the dangers looming over Ecuador and most developing countries, namely a rise in interest rates (a large part of the new loans are with banks that practise variable rates) and a fall in the market price of oil or other raw materials. It is likely that the Commission for a Comprehensive Audit of the Debt (CAIC) will be able to clearly identify odious and illegitimate debts. Will the government still repay them in order to avoid international tensions with creditors and tensions at home with the large private corporations that still control a large part of the country's economy? This essential debate will take place in 2008. Will Rafael Correa choose the way of a fair and sovereign solution to illegitimate debts? We hope so but this is not certain.

            At the level of Latin American regional integration, the creation of the Bank of the South, which was announced for June 2007, has been delayed because of reticence on the part of Brazil. However, an important ministerial meeting took place in Rio de Janeiro on the 9th and 10th October 2007, during which a series of obstacles were lifted. In spite of Brazil and Argentina's attempt to go back on the one-country-one-vote ruling (which was ratified in May-June 2007) and which had been put forward by Ecuador, it would seem that the meeting did finally agree on this democratic ruling. The Bank of the South, whose headquarters is to be in Caracas, should normally come into being on 3rd November 2007 in the Venezuelan capital city.

            The path to social reform is full of pitfalls. Several left-wing presidents have won elections in Latin America in past years by promising to break with the neo-liberal policies of their predecessors, but few of them have actually kept their word. Let us hope that Rafael Correa will stay the course and that he will succeed in implementing social justice with democratic policies. So far his strategy has increased and comforted popular support for change. It has also laid down the necessary conditions for a democratic change in the institutions. It has further reinforced the country's independence towards the United States while strengthening Latin American integration. This is a lot already.

            The situation in Ecuador must be followed closely. On Friday 19 and Saturday 20 October 2007 CADTM is pleased to welcome in Brussels a delegation from Ecuador led by Minister Ricardo Patino, who is in charge of auditing the debt and of the creation of the Bank of the South. The delegation will speak about debt auditing in the Congress room of the Belgian senate on Friday and Saturday (see programme below). On Friday evening (8.00) at the Jacques Brel youth hostel a talk will be given on "Challenges facing Correa's government and the new constituent assembly”.

(Translated by Christine Pagnoulle and Elizabeth Anne, CADTM)

Notes

1. Alberto Acosta has published several books as well as over one hundred articles on the debt. In 2003 he took part in a seminar organised by CADTM in Brussels on current changes in Latin America. 2. See the chapter on the Ecuadorian debt “Ecuador at the cross-roads” in Les Crimes de la dette, CADTM-Syllepse, Liège-Paris, 2007. The text is also available online www.cadtm.org. It was translated into Spanish, English (see http://www.cadtm.org/spip.php?article2767) and Japanese.

 

Jaime Padilla, CubaNow, October 1, 2007

The right is willing to use any means to impede the process of change begun by Bolivia's President Evo Morales, and bring an end to the Constituent Assembly against the wishes of the majority of Bolivians.

            Faced with such provocation Bolivians have mobilised in defence of the Assembly and in support of their government, as well as demanding an explanation of the problems faced in the departments of Chuquisaca and La Paz.

            Last Monday a huge gathering in La Paz rejected the transfer of the government to Sucre, while thousands of indigenous people began a Social Summit in Sucre in support of the Constituent Assembly, which has been paralysed over the last three weeks for lack of guarantees. The people are insisting the Assembly be reopened and that the new Constitution be quickly approved by December 14.

            As always, it is the same group that finds a thousand ways to disturb the political process in Bolivia. The Comité Cívico Cruceñista (Cruceñista Civic Committee), together with the oligarchy and the owners of the mainstream press, agitate in constant confrontations with the government. Thus it was at the end of August that these committees from six of the nine departments and supposedly acting "in defence of democracy”, accused Evo Morales of acting above the law and called for a work stoppage.

            Both Santa Cruz and Cochabamba have lived through recent violence and vandalism. Beni and Tarija witnessed some incidents, but the work stoppage was quiet in Sucre and Cobija (Pando). The president of the Cruceñista Civic Committee, Branko Marincovic said that the stoppage was "a success and a demonstration that the government should be held to account and should straighten out its act”. But he omitted to mention that thugs from the Cruceñista Youth Union took to the streets armed with sticks to force citizens to obey the stoppage.

            Days later these same thugs were sent to Sucre, disguised as indigenous people to act as agents provocateurs. This and other similar acts that were ultimately repeated in Santa Cruz, are not remote incidents, but part of a confabulation. The Cruceñista Committee has an enormous capacity to interfere in matters that do not concern it. It does not recognise the Regional Labour Office or decisions of local government, but manipulates other civic entities. Its arrogance was evident during open meetings on autonomy conducted before one of the weakest local governors in the country, Carlos Mesa, who yielded to the pressure of the autonomist movement. Other regions such as Tarija, Beni, Pando and Chuquisaca (the Media Luna region) were also submitted to the same treatment.

            How should we evaluate this situation?

            It is not the Cruceño people that generate the conflict, but the ideologues of the regionalist brainchild: the Camba National Liberation Movement – an ally of retrograde sectors in the country and supported by the US Embassy that seeks to divide Bolivia.

            And all this is not for naught. In a text published on their website (www.nacioncamba.net), they proclaim: "To date, the racist politics promoted by the mob State have benefited only the Andean 'colonists' with no fewer than two million hectares of the better Cruceña lands, and that they were favoured with generous international cooperation programmes, and received technical support and basic infrastructure." Nevertheless, "the Cambas have not benefited with even with a square meter of their own land, and their just demands are ignored by the parasitic bureaucracies of the Altiplano”.

            They've left off their struggle against the oil companies and the law of administrative decentralisation, and now seek their own autonomous government "for the legal and formal recognition of our Cruceño Nation-state”. The Cruceñista Civic Committee, the Camba National Liberation Movement and the Cruceñista Youth Union are branches of the same tree that has no concept of Bolivian unity – or simply does not want to understand it – and use their peons to measure the reaction of the Bolivian people. However, time is not on their side.

            Let us see how they operate.

            The simple-minded mayor of Santa Cruz, Percy Fernández, who has stated that Bolivia should be divided, called for the Media Luna region to separate from "the Colla nation”, and conform to the "Nation of the East”, while the Cochabamba Prefect, Manfred Reyes Villa, continues to demand Evo's resignation. Reyes Villa has an unpleasant past in the dictatorships of Luis Garcia Meza and Hugo Banzer Suarez.

            Other mediocre players in national politics are the opposition leaders of Poder Democrático Social (Podemos or "We Can"), Jorge Tuto Quiroga, and of Unidad Nacional (UN or National Unity), Samuel Doria Medina, and a writer that seeks prominence, Juan Claudio Lechín. Businessman Doria Medina was entrusted with organising a hardly credible hunger strike during discussions relating to the two thirds issue in the Assembly. It appears that they agree with the old adage that the end justifies the means, employing a media campaign that ignores the process of transformation taking place in the country.

            The acts of provocation are subtly subordinate to a strategy designed against the rebuilding of Bolivia. They invent a climate of instability, with the sinister intention of causing a break in the nation's democracy as the best way to exclude the social and indigenous movements and bring about social confrontation.

            Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS – Movement for Socialism) senator Antonio Peredo Leigue recently commented that this campaign by the opposition was "a matter of repeating and repeating the same lie, until it becomes a reality. Listening to the same rumour over and over makes us disregard it, and thereby allows it to continue being spread without contradiction. We tire of their falsehoods and so allow their continuous diffusion. However, there are groups – the ones that have the economic power – that believe these rumours. Worse still, they contribute to them."

            For diverse sectors of Santa Cruz, the situation in the city with the mobilisations and acts of violence has become very worrying, because retaliation is being taken against those who do not share the extreme right-wing position, thus hardly providing a framework for democracy.

Constituent Assembly in Check

            Because of clashes between police and student/citizen protestors, the directors of the Assembly shut down sessions of the Constituent Assembly on September 6. The debate over the nation's future capital is today a banner that rallies the opposition and the air around the Constituent Assembly has become stale under the influence of the Cruceñista Civic Committee with its demand for the transfer of the seat of national government.

            Thus the enemies of the people have managed to introduce into the Constituent Assembly process alien elements as to the transformation of the State, autonomy and the demand for Sucre to become the capital. If these intransigent and irreconcilable positions by the civic leaders of the departments of La Paz and Sucre are not abandoned, the Constituent Assembly will fail and die.

Call for Dialogue and Responsibility

            President Evo Morales reiterated his call for dialogue to resolve the issue of the seat of government, "to demonstrate the will to channel the conflict”. However, he has been unable to reach the conservative sectors which prefer to use sticks and secession because they lack popular support. In response to this flurry of conspiracy, Prensa Latina News Agency reported the celebration of a summit of the social movements and the proposal that a high level commission reinvigorate the Constituent Assembly. The mobilisation of indigenous peoples and other social sectors is permanent and they have been declared guarantors of the Assembly.

            "For us, the Constituent Assembly represents life or death, and lives have been lost over it. Everyone in Bolivia knows what has been happening and who it is that wants the Assembly to fail. Which social, economic and political groups do not want the major change: the landowners, large businessmen and the large estate owners in the East of the country," says Damian Condori, executive secretary of the Federación Unica de Campesinos de Chuquisaca (Single Farmers Federation of Chuquisaca).

            The mainstream international media inflate the conflict in Bolivia, presenting the government of Evo Morales trapped in a dead end and demanding – in their stories – respect for democracy, for institutions, and a call for social calm.

            The clashes in Sucre cannot be compared with "Black February" during the water and gas wars that caused the fall of Goni Sánchez de Lozada and Carlos Mesa. They are, says the president of the Comisión de Visión de País (Commission for a National Vision) and Constituent Assembly member, Félix Cárdenas, a necessary friction in the defence of which rights must be respected. "One must assume that no change will be free of pain, but nonetheless should be the least painful as possible." Cárdenas maintains that the Constituent Assembly is not a tea party where kisses, hugs, and sweet words are exchanged in the name of all Bolivians. No. "In the Assembly we are people who defend the interests and aspirations of the poor, the excluded, of those that do not have work today, and will not tomorrow. There are also those who defend the interests of the oligarchs, of the landowners that hold 100,000 hectares of land acquired illegally during the military governments while the farmers barely own two or three hectares. The right-wing currently demands a dialogue based on respect for law and democracy. "Look at them! They were beaten on December 18 but yet place conditions on the victors – the minority never imposes conditions [on] the majority..."

 

Venezuela's National Assembly is progressing in the discussion of the draft constitutional reform presented by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in order to consolidate the construction of socialism in the country. The proposal is to change 33 articles of the Constitution, to strengthen the construction of a socialist model in the country, and also modify relevant issues like property, natural resources and communal power, among others, Prensa Latina reports.

            In remarks to journalists on October 2, president of the Venezuelan Parliament Cilia Flores indicated that the legislative strategy to bring the proposal to all sectors has been accomplished.

            In this regard, the Flores said that several political and social groups "put forward their views freely”, and "it will be up to the people to finally approve the reform”.

            "In the next few days we will continue with street parliamentarism activities, including the house-by-house plan to increase public awareness," Flores added. An October 10 item from Prensa Latina reported that the constitutional project is entering a decisive phase, supported by the acceptance expressed in the consultations carried out by the Parliament. The consultations took place in all sectors of Venezuelan society and included 435 meetings of the Venezuelan Joint Commission with the population.

            An article-by-article discussion of the project within the Joint Parliamentary Commission started October 9 in order that delegates draft a final report to be debated in the Legislature on October 15.

            Later, the assembly's plenary session will be in charge of the study of suggestions to modify the Constitution for its approval, prior to the popular consultation organised by the National Electoral Council. Flores stated that stage will take into consideration the possibility for further changes beyond the 33 articles proposed by President Chavez, Prensa Latina reports.

            Assembly President Cilia Flores informed the press that a recent telephone survey showed 70 percent acceptance of the reform en bloc, while 21 percent favoured an article by article vote. She noted that 27 per cent of the comments focussed on the proposal of changes to labour rights and 19 per cent on the new geometry of power. Economic rights most interested 16 per cent, 8 per cent were concerned with the Bolivarian Armed Forces and 7 per cent about food sovereignty.

            Desiree Santos, first vice-president of the Legislature, assured that Venezuela is organised around the issue saying there were interesting proposals even from opposition sectors.

            In related news, Venezuelan Communications and Information Minister William Lara said October 9 that constitutional reform strengthens freedom of expression in the country.

            The minister pointed out that the reform will reinforce "the leading role of the entire society in daily news developments, in the generation and spreading of opinions on different topics on the public agenda”. Lara was replying to Miguel Otero, owner of the newspaper El Nacional and representative of the Inter-American Press Society (SIEP), who complained about alleged implicit risks in the project, especially regarding the freedoms of expression and information.

            According to Lara, the conclusions to be reached by the "Inter-American Press Society in its upcoming meeting in Miami lack validity and relevance”.

            They are a rehash by media capitalists who profess sick hatred against the Venezuelan revolution and "whose poison will be present in concentrated doses in the report that Otero will present at such a meeting," said Lara. Regarding the claim that private property would be threatened by the constitutional reform, the minister categorically said, "The pre-eminence of collective interest over individual interest is a long-standing guiding principle in Venezuelan constitutionalism." Lara denied that the government has pressured the hotel chains where members of the SIEP have made reservations.

            "We couldn't care less about the SIEP's same old story. That is the best proof that freedom of expression is fully respected in the country," the minister added.

(Source: Prensa Latina)

 

Chris Carlson, Venezuelanalysis.com, October 9, 2007

On Sunday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez outlined his conception of how his constitutional reform proposal will change the political and territorial organisation of the country and will provide more political power to community organisations. Chavez made his presentation during his weekly TV and radio programme Aló Presidente.

            "With the approval of the Constitutional Reform, with the power that it will give to the people, we will break from this straightjacket that the colonial model imposed upon us," said Chavez on Sunday from the Humboldt Hotel on the mountain above Caracas.

            Chavez spent much of his show this week explaining what he calls "the new geometry of power”, which will reorganise the political, territorial, and economic structure of the country. Chavez has said that these changes will be fundamental to the planned transition to a socialist system in the country.

            The president explained the proposed territorial distribution, which will be made up of states, federal districts, municipalities, communes, federal territories, and island districts. Chavez has explained before that organised communities will unite to form communes throughout the country, which will basically be self-governing entities.

            As for political organisation, the communities will exercise power through the communal councils, workers councils, and farmer and producer councils. Chavez emphasised that in this way the communities will have increased decision-making power with regards to the administration of public resources and public works.

            "It's not bringing power closer to the people, but rather giving power to the people," emphasised Chavez.

            The national government will be assigning a total of Bs. 3.2 trillion (US$ 1.4 billion) to communal councils in 2008, according to Chavez. He said that the money would be progressively administered to the communities over the next year as they get organised.

            "For next year, once we have popular power included in the constitution, the government will be ready to transfer resources, duties and responsibilities to the communes, starting in January of 2008," said Chavez.

            He went on to explain the proposed economic configuration that will set up productive units under the management of communes and in the form of socialist enterprises and cooperatives. Chavez emphasised that the economy would be centered on satisfying the needs of the Venezuelan communities and decreasing inequality in the population so that "there are not such extreme differences among Venezuelans”.

            "Popular power is the essence of full democracy, of socialism, of socialist democracy. Only in socialism can we achieve it," he said.

            Along these lines Chavez also proposed transferring the management of the national community health system Barrio Adentro to the communities. He said that with the changing of the constitution, an automatic 5 percent of the national budget will go directly to the communities, and along with this each community could manage the primary health clinics, the first tier of the Barrio Adentro health system.

            He also proposed that with the constitutional reform the communities will be able to manage other programmes, such as administrating money for educational scholarships in each community, as well as the maintenance of the public schools and other public services. Chavez assured that his constitutional reform proposal would be approved by 60 percent of the population.

Humanitarian Accord in Colombia

            The Venezuelan president also made several references on Sunday to his efforts to mediate in the conflict between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). During his show he called on Colombian President Alvaro Uribe to help him in arranging a meeting with the leader of the FARC Manuel Marulanda.

            A meeting between Chavez and the FARC leaders has been in the works for several weeks, and was eventually set for Saturday, October 8th, but had to be postponed for security reasons. Chavez insists that the meeting is essential to the efforts to reach a humanitarian exchange of hostages, but the Colombian government has not guaranteed secure conditions for the guerrillas in meeting with Chavez.

            "I think the government of President Uribe needs to help us in that respect. The statements of the Colombian defence minister didn't help much, when once the meeting was announced he said that the FARC guerrillas would be moving at their own risk, and that they would continue carrying out operations to capture them. That, as they say in Colombia, seemed like a stick in the spokes," said Chavez.

            Chavez assured that he would continue to work to arrange a meeting with the FARC leaders and to achieve a humanitarian agreement between the Colombian government and the guerrilla organisation. He assured that he will work with patience, but will not stop efforts to mediate in the conflict.

Reference: Opposition Parties Campaigning against Chávez's Proposed Changes to the Constitution El Universal, October 9, 2007

            Regardless of the decision each opposition party makes to participate or not in a referendum on the changes to the Constitution proposed by President Hugo Chávez, dissenters are uniting to launch a campaign to reject the intended modifications.

            Víctor Bolívar, chair of Acción Democrática, explained that the leaders of opposition parties Un Nuevo Tiempo, Copei, Alianza Bravo Pueblo, Movimiento al Socialismo and Acción Democrática, among others, have met to outline a common strategy against the proposed changes, which they called a threat for democracy.

            Bolívar said that next October 10 they are launching the campaign, with a ceremony in Brión Square, Chacaíto. "The leaders of all the parties involved in this action to counter the reform" will attend the act.

            Meanwhile, Rafael Contreras, leader of opposition Copei party, asked the National Electoral Council (CNE) to ensure equal conditions during the campaign.

            Therefore, he called upon the top electoral body to let the opposition visit the military barracks and garrisons – just like President Chávez did – to explain the scope and implications of the proposal.

 

Chris Carlson, Venezuelanalysis.com, October 4, 2007

Responding to US Defence Secretary Robert Gates, who said that Hugo Chavez is a "threat to regional stability”, Venezuelan Vice-President Jorge Rodriguez affirmed that Hugo Chavez is indeed a "tremendous threat" to the "empires of the world”, and assured they would continue to be a "greater threat" as time goes on.

            "Of course he [Chavez] is a threat to the stability of the empires of the world, for those who consider themselves the world police, for those who think they have a right to invade countries and massively murder the population," replied the Venezuelan vice-president to a recent statement made by Robert Gates during a visit to El Salvador.

            "And we are going to continue becoming a greater danger as the people continue to heed the call to get organised. Without a doubt, we will convert ourselves into a danger for the despots of the world," Rodriguez continued.

            The US defence secretary made the comment on Monday during a two-hour visit to El Salvador. At a joint news conference with Salvadoran President Antonio Saca, Gates called El Salvador "one of the most faithful coalition partners”, due to the fact that it is the only Latin American country with troops in Iraq. Gates went on to praise its "important role in humanitarian and peacekeeping operations worldwide”.

            Gates then warned that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was mainly a "threat to the freedom and economic prosperity of the people of Venezuela”. According to Gates, Chavez "has been very generous in offering their resources to people around the world, when perhaps these resources could be better used to alleviate some of the economic problems facing the people of Venezuela”.

            Gates made the visit to El Salvador as a part of a five-nation tour of Latin America. The defence secretary's tour will include visits to Colombia, Chile, Peru, and Surinam, some of Washington's strongest allies in the region. Analysts said the goal of Gates' Latin American tour is to not only shore up US allies, but also to counter the influence of Hugo Chavez in the region.

            Chavez has also become a strong ally for US enemy, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has made investments in Venezuela and increased economic ties with the region. Ahmadinejad met last week with the Venezuelan President after first travelling to Bolivia to meet with President Evo Morales. He also met this year with Rafael Correa of Ecuador and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua.

            Vice-President Rodriguez assured that Gates' intention in Latin America was to undermine the alliances that President Chavez has built with other leaders in the region, but assured that he would not be successful.

            "Every time they have tried it the only thing they have done is waste their time," he said.

            "I have no doubt that this guy is wasting his time and he is going to keep wasting his time. I think it is completely impossible to reverse this wind of liberty, of self-determination, of sovereignty, that the leaders of the continent are obligated to defend. Now it is the whole continent that is struggling for its liberty and I doubt very much that this official will be able to come here and reverse the course of history," he concluded.

 

Some 56 lawmakers from 12 countries met on October 5 in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba and agreed to continue to study the bases of the Foundational Agreement of the Parliament of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), as a new scenario for integration.

            The document must be approved at the Third South American Summit, scheduled for January 2008 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia.

            The new parliament will have to face international challenges in relations between blocs and countries, and will work on Latin American integration.

            At the opening session of the meeting, Bolivian President Evo Morales even suggested considering a single currency, so that the member countries would not depend on the Euro or the dollar.

            He also stressed the need to defend basic services and the access to resources such as water, and to prevent the privatisation of such resources in detriment of the majorities.

            The lawmakers demanded broader debate and consensus on the way to elect the representatives of UNASUR, the responsibilities and attributions of the new mechanism of consultation, and its relationship with national parliaments.

            They agreed to meet again in Medellin, Colombia on November 22-23 to continue to debate the project, which will be voted by the region's foreign ministers on November 30.

            At the same time, Bolivians witnessed a first accord to make the Constitutional Assembly, to be in force until December 14, viable.

            A Policy Council, created by the Bolivian government and made up of 11 of 16 Bolivian political parties represented at the forum, approved a proposal to create a state, community and private economic State. Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that it is about three forms of organisation: a mixed economy, a community economy and a private economy, all of which are aimed at improving the people's quality of life.

            The initiative must be voted by two thirds of the 255 delegates of the Assembly, he stated.

(Source: Prensa Latina)