Proposed constitutional amendment for indefinite re-election in Venezuela

Authors:
José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net

Click here to download the full text –in Spanish- of the draft constitutional amendment amending Article 230. Hugo Chavez is proposing this change to be reelected indefinitely as President of the Republic of Venezuela.

The current Venezuelan Constitution states:

"Article 230: The presidential term is six years. The President of the Republic may be re-elected, immediately and one-time, for a further term."

But with the amendment it would assert:

"Article 230: The presidential term is six years. The President of the Republic may be re-elected."

The National Assembly will begin to discuss this amendment on December 18, 2008, where Chavism plans to approve it as soon as possible. In theory the project should be approved in two discussions and sent to the CNE. Then, the National Electoral Council set a deadline for a referendum.

This project violates the democratic principle of alternation in power and seek to privatize the Presidency of the Republic in the hands of Hugo Chávez.

If this amendment to the Venezuelan Constitution is approved, we will be going the way of Cuba and North Korea, where dictators come to power, remain there for decades, and abandon it only when they are so old that they can no longer oppress others.

We must remember what Simón Bolívar warned in 1819, at the Congress of Angostura:

“The continuation of authority in the same person has frequently proved the undoing of democratic governments. Repeated elections are essential to the system of popular government, because there is nothing so dangerous as to suffer Power to be vested for a long time in one citizen. The people become accustomed to obeying him, and he becomes accustomed to commanding, hence the origin of usurpation and tyranny. A proper zeal is the guarantee of republican liberty, and our citizens must very justly fear that the same Magistrate who has governed them for a long time, may continue to rule them forever.”

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