Chavez Seeks Constitutional Reform For Indefinite Re-Election

President Hugo Chavez is asking supporters to propose a constitutional reform that would allow him to seek indefinite re-election.

Chavez, who was first elected in 1998, is barred from running again when his term expires in 2013.

Venezuelan voters last year rejected a sweeping package of constitution changes that would have ended presidential term limits.

Those reforms had raised concern among opponents that Chavez intends to be president for life.

Chavez on Sunday said he would stay in office until 2019 if voters abolished the term limits.

The former paratroop commander says he needs more time in office to build a socialist economy in Venezuela.

Comments

[whosyourdaddy]

Do you suppose Sean Penn and Danny Glover will fly down and congratulate him on his coronation?

[Justtellthetruth]

Its great to see this poser desperately grasping for the last vestiges of power before falling oil prices finally spell his ultimate doom. He has squandered his oil wealth aggrandizing himself worldwide while infrastructure in his own is failing and there are lines and shortages for basic goods. soon the state run oil industry and other state run businesses will end up in the same condition that the soviet unions did.

Dictators running socialist states are a proven disaster, and Chavez is no exception.

[haramagoti]

The Venezuelan People have already spoken. This is a slap to their collective face, which he's getting kinda good at by this point. They cannot give him an inch, and he'll be lucky if he's able to live there safely after he steps down, as is law.

[haramagoti]

Wow, i have to apologize for this comment. After reading Sean Penn's piece on the Huff Post, i have no problem realizing my mistake. The facts are often shielded in the news and i based my reaction to the story on propaganda which i'm ashamed to say i bought whole. Shameful, really.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sean-penn/mountain-of-snakes_b_146765.html

[cdnnewsjunky]

Funny how most of the trolls here had no problem with Bu sh messing with the constitution but become quite shrill when the shoe is on the other foot!

[whosyourdaddy]

Which part of the constitution?

[RLHotchkiss]

I too have tired of Chaves as an individual political leader but it is important to notice the real bias in the press. Chaves is actually trying to amend the constitution to remove term limits. This is actually a step towards increasing democracy. No one knows more than California where inexperienced legislators turned to the Energy companies to write the deregulation law that those same companies used to rob California of billions of dollars, how devastating term limits are to democracy. It is also of note that Uribe's attempt to tackle term limits in Columbia gets barely a mention.

[guajiro]

outside the America media, it is mentioned. Here's a link:
http://nacla.org/node/5175
Sad that we have to rely on foreign sources for facts.

[Hawka]

You're talking about California on referendums? Ever heard of Prop. 8?

[Paralogos]

And so we see Chavez ultimate failure as a leader. He may be prepared to fight to achieve some vision of social justice, but he has failed to create a vehicle to perpetuate that vision in his absence. No independent decision-making system. No political hier. No coherent ideology. He'll fight with ever greater desperation to retain his personal hold on power, and that very desperation will doom him in the end.

[JesusReyes]

Venezuela can teach the US how to have clean elections. If the US elections were as clean as Venezuela's Bush wouldnt have been elected either time.

[LeeCalif]

Now that's a fact.

[Hawka]

What's that now? Obama won over McCain? Wow, look at that! Glad we didn't remove our term limits though, least under your logic Bush would continue to be elected until either he died or the U.S died!

[whosyourdaddy]

I have seen pretty consistent support for this guy here on huffpost. Is this support waning or is this something expected, appreciated or anticipated by the left. Is this something Danny Glover and Sean Penn can be proud of encouraging?

[guajiro]

More importantly, is this something the conservatives think is somehow wrong? Do conservatives think that term limits are unpatriotic and undemocratic? What would Mel Gibson or Jon Voight say?Are they against term limits and if so does that justify conservative voters emulating other social postitions by their heros.

[whosyourdaddy]

That neither makes a bit of sense, nor answers the question.

[whosyourdaddy]

Actually, as far as I know yes, conservatives disaprove. Though I have read here several comments supporting Chavez and his measures.

[jpsoraire]

This Dictator needs to leave now. I don't care what he is doing down there. He has, will now, and intends to in the future to completely abolish Democracy in that country. Whoever can read this in Venezuela must know that you must do whatever it takes to stop this man from removing the constitution. Don't be fooled. He wants to rule like Fidel Castro. He is behind a push to lead that country into communism and it must be stopped. STOP HUGO CHAVEZ NOW!!!

[guajiro]

Ok, easy now, put your head between your legs and......breathe deeply........again............one more time.........there now. Now relax and listen. Abrogating a person's right to vote in the person he/she wants for political office IS ITSELF UNDEMOCRATIC!!!!!! For your ignorant knowledge, you who have term limits on your own choice of politicians, the right of citizens to vote in their electors is and should always be a constitutional right not abridged BY ANY REFEREDUM.

[Hawka]

... Prop. 8, enough said. Term limits are set up as a means of preventing consolidation of powers by individuals in high office and helps make way for new perspective in ever changing times.

[jsarets]

Hugo Chavez is not a leader that progressives should hold up as a standard bearer for social and economic reform.

Yes, he's spreading wealth through public services. Yes, he's mobilized a grassroots movement. Yes, he's establishing worker-owned cooperatives.

But like all too many reformers, he has a delusional fantasy that he can create a utopian paradise by autocratic decree.

Chavez thinks that he can transform communities through his own initiative rather than providing the resources they need to transform themselves.

Chavez thinks that the cooperatives can succeed without any integration with consumer markets as they sit idle waiting for government orders.

Chavez thinks that he serves as an effective proxy for the will of the people, but his constituency sees its situation quite differently from the picture he paints on Alo Presidente.

The holistic mandate for socialism is that we're all in this together. Everyone is a stakeholder, and everyone should have a say.

Elections are not sufficient if they only permit the people to choose their dictator.

Social investment is not sufficient if communities cannot decide how best to allocate resources.

Worker-owned production is not sufficient without markets in which to sell the fruits of their labor.

Chavez is just another in a long line of anti-democratic state socialists that give socialism a bad name, just another impediment in the progressive movement toward an economic order that thrives in harmony with a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

[ChristiB]

How dictators are born.

[jmundstuk]

The tendency is for a strong leader to want to continue their rule and to believe that they are the only ones who can fulfill the vision of...whatever the vision is. Viz. Zimbabwe. It just seems that is how it goes.

Remember the saying that power tends to corrupt and absolutely power corrupts absolutely. I don't think anyone in power can avoid being corrupted at least somewhat by it. The person in power is well served to understand this is true and be aware of it while exercising that corrupting force.

[Troutboi]

Hugo, probably would have more cash to help the poor if he would stop buying soooo many Russian Arms.

[guajiro]

It's the price he's willing to pay to have Russia at the U.S.'s back door. With Russia in his front yard and with the technology Russia is willing to invest in Venezuela and with the Bolivar vision Chavez and other latin American countries are executing, this might just be their ace-in-the-hole that lifts all of their countries out of the U.S. created poverty. At least that is their hopes and we should all be able to accomplish our dreams.

[Hawka]

I don't know, last time I looked the Soviets tried that once upon a time... didn't work out so well for them if I recall.

[WilliamP]

I think Chavez's heart is in the right place trying to help the people who live in terrible poverty in Venezuela. But I'm not convinced that he knows what he's doing. It seems that his price control policies have caused scarcity. His nationalization schemes have detered foreign investment. Inflation is around 30%; at that rate, prices will double within two and a half years. All this, and he's facing lower oil prices, which will have a large impact since 90% of Venezuela's exports are oil.

If he really has the new Socialism that he claims he does, he's going to have to show that he can deal with these problems while implementing his policies for the poor.

[guajiro]

Listen, "For five centuries, Venezuela has been run by a minority of very white people, pure-blood descendants of the Spanish conquistadors. To most of the 80 percent of Venezuelans who are brown, Hugo Chavez is their Nelson Mandela, the man who will smash the economic and social apartheid that has kept the dark-skinned millions stacked in cardboard houses in the hills above Caracas while the whites live in high-rise splendor in the city center". It's hard to constantly fight the wealthy-owned American media that says nothing of positive situations and accomplishments by Chavez. Consider: "Today, there are hundreds of people held in detention without charges in George Bush's United States. In Venezuela, there are none. "
Do not allow yourself to be manipulated by the press. Even fabulously wealthy Arriana has political goals, as magnificent as she is.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3931.htm

[Hawka]

It's the economy, stupid.

[BSERIUS]

Jimmy Carter, Sean Penn and Danny Glover are laready on board

[guajiro]

Chivas I presume?