Another Day, Another Trick

November 16, 2003

The Consejo Nacional Electoral decided yesterday that those living abroad will not be able to particpate in the petition drive for Chavez’ recall. The excuse? That the logistics were too complex and it would be difficult to supervise. Now, since the country has dozens of Embassies and over one hundred Consulates, I still do not see what the problem is. Don’t these consulates notarized documents everyday? Are those suspect too? In fact, in all previous elections, including the union elections (They live abroad, but belong to a local union?), Venezuelans were allowed to vote at the consulates abroad, so the only real reason for this is that the Government wipes out a significant number of anti-Chavez signers with one stroke. The CNE vote was three to two, with the three pro-Chavez members voting together. What else is new? My concern is, what other tricks are awaiting for us in the future? These people have no scruples and can justify anything with legal or pseudo-legal arguments anytime they want. This implies the opposition has to gather over four million signatures to insure that they will not disqualify, lose, mutilate or misplace a sufficient number so that the recall is not succesful. So far, they have intimidated public workers, all members of the military and disqualified all Venezuelans living abroad. All of this together may be around one million signatures already……

This entry was posted on November 16, 2003 at 12:26 am and is filed under Venezuela.

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