Red Pepper's Venezuela Blog

Venezuela’s Enabling Law Could Also Enable the Opposition

[Venezuelanalysis.com editor Gregory Wilpert argues that the latest of Chavez’s moves - his asking for and getting a new enabling law - has caused his opponents to predict the end of Venezuelan democracy yet again. This time, they say, Chavez is definitely stepping over the line. While the “rule by decree” story poses risks, they are not the ones that opposition analysts are hyperventilating about. --Ed]
 

The Venezuela Coup and its Accomplices

Rod Stoneman, executive producer of the documentary The Revolution Will Not be Televised explains why the Venezuelan government has announced that it won't renew the licence of private TV channel RCTV. --Ed.

Chávez in Charge

[Richard Gott, author of Hugo Chávez and the Bolivarian Revolution, argues that Hugo Chávez is a man in a hurry, and this week's decision by the Venezuelan national assembly to grant him additional powers foreshadows the radical changes that are in the pipeline. Yet the Venezuelan future is still interestingly uncertain and opaque, for the simple reason that Chávez is not a dictator and has never shown the slightest sign of wanting to become one. --Ed]

Why Aren't You in a Hurry, Comrade?

[Michael Lebowitz, author of Build It Now: Socialism for the Twenty-First Century, argues that while some of the dismay over the idea of a unified party of the revolution dissipates with Chavez's stress upon the need to build it from below and to make it the most democratic party in Venezuela's history, attention now has focused upon his request to the National Assembly for an Enabling Law that would allow him to introduce laws in specific areas directly rather than taking these through the National Assembly. The real question that needs to be posed is one to traditional Venezuelan intellectuals and their counterparts abroad: why aren't you in a hurry, comrade? --Ed]

Venezuelan Legislature Allows President to Pass Laws by Decree for 18 Months

[Venezuelanalysis.com editor Gregory Wilpert reports on yesterday's passing by Venezuela’s National Assembly of a so-called “enabling law” which will allow President Chavez to pass laws by decree in eleven different areas for a period of 18 months. Chavez had asked for the enabling law earlier this month, saying it is needed to accelerate the process of transforming Venezuela’s state and economy into “21st century socialism.”This is the third time Chavez has received such authorization during his presidency and Chavez is the fifth Venezuelan president to take advantage of this power, which both the 1961 and the 1999 constitutions permit. --Ed]

Noehli Pocaterra, National Assembly Deputy representing the country's indigenous population expressed her support for the enabling law.
Credit: Gregory Wilpert

Venezuela Rejects Negroponte’s “Concerns” Over its Democracy

[Below is an article I wrote for Venezuelanalysis.com that reports on the Venezuelan government's response to comments made by a senior U.S. official, John Negroponte, who called Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez “a threat to democracy” in Latin America. --Ed]

 

Latin America's Pink Tide

[Diana Raby, author of Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today, argues that with left-wing victories in Venezuela, Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, social and economic recovery in Cuba and popular advances elsewhere in the region, journalists are talking about “Latin America’s pink tide” and the region itself has become the forum for passionate debates on “Socialism of the 21st Century”. To purchase Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today click here. To read the book’s first chapter click here. --Ed]