Coupsterism in his veins - Feb4, 2011

VenEconomy- Feb.4, 2011
"Coupsterism" in his veins

On February 4, 1992, a group of officials of the Venezuelan armed forces attempted a coup d’état against the constitutionally elected president of the day, Carlos Andrés Pérez. Among the leaders of that attempted military coup was Hugo Chávez, today the President of Venezuela.
Thanks to a pardon granted by President Rafael Caldera, Hugo Chávez was able to reach the seat of Miraflores by the electoral route in February 1999.

However, during the three terms he has been in office, the present “Commander-President” has demonstrated his fondness for coups or “strikes against the State.” There is not a single institution or sector of society in Venezuela that has not been hit by such a coup garbed in a cloak of “legality.”

One of the first to receive a devastating coup was Petróleos de Venezuela, when more than 20,000 technical, professional, and managerial employees were fired in 2002, so depriving the company that is the country’s main source of revenue of domestic human talent that had taken years to train. Since then, PDVSA’s situation has gone from bad to worse.

Thanks to a submissive Electoral Council (CNE), there was a coup against more than 4 million Venezuelans who signed a petition for a referendum to recall Chávez’s presidential mandate. The CNE refused to acknowledge the validity of the signatures and forced people to sign again. Subsequently, the information supplied with the signatures was used to draw up the Tascón List, which has since served to implement a system of political apartheid against those who signed the petition.

The will of the people has also been the target of an ongoing coup when, even though the President’s proposed constitutional reform was rejected in 2007, he went ahead anyway and imposed each and every one of the rejected reforms via the legislative route. Today, it is being subjected to yet another coup when Central Government refuses to acknowledge governors, mayors, deputies, and parish councilors elected by direct, secret suffrage and when Chávez was given a fourth enabling law so that he can usurp the legislative role of the National Assembly.

There has been a coup against the independence of the justice system by means of amendments to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice Act that have permitted the appointment of justices at discretion, the majority of whom willingly bend to the Executive’s will. The cherry on the cake is that, today, there is no final sentence that cannot be quashed by the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

There have been continuous coups against the freedom of speech and information via a number of gag laws and also with the closure of Radio Caracas TV and more than 33 radio stations and the imposition of censorship and self-censorship on the media.

The “Commander-President” has committed coups against the productive sector with punitive laws, expropriations, and controls of all kinds; given workers and trade unions a beating, violating collective employment contracts and trade union privilege; and dealt mortal coups against private property.

He has been conducting a systematic coup against national sovereignty by handing over the management of areas that are of vital importance for Venezuelans and the country’s security to Cuba, run by the Castro brothers.

But above all, an irreversible coup has been committed against all the country’s citizens who are at the mercy of criminals thanks to the impunity allowed by the “Commander-President” and his warmongering discourse.