No sooner had I written about whether Chavez could or not run that the President of the Venezuelan Supreme Court Ivan Rincon says today in an interview in El Nacional page A-2 (by subscription) that a decision is already written by the Constitutional Hall which allows Chavez to run., Rincon says that there is nothing that explicitly forbids Chavez from running in the Constitution so it is a very simple case. Thus, the President of the Court leaks the decision even before it is approved.
Well, this is the bizarre logic of this bizarre country. The Constitution explicitly says in Art. 233 that the election after the recall of the mandate will be to elect a “new” President to complete the term of the revoked President. Well, that word “new” to me is pretty clear, Chavez would obviously not be a “new” President to complete his won mandate. But what can I say, what do I know anyway? Clearly, the Court will do what Chavez wants. Except that Chavez can be defeated twice and he will be.
I also find another aspect of Rincon’s interview disturbing. This must be the only country in the world where decisions by the Supreme Court are known, announced and in some cases, distributed via the Internet days and weeks before the decisions are made. You would think that these guys would at least attempt to maintain an image of propriety, but I guess their ethics and principles have deteriorated so much that they do not even think there may be something wrong with what they are doing.
For completeness, since I am talking about the Venezuelan Supreme Court, this week the Court pensioned off three of its members, all anti-Chavez and they were replaced by all pro-Chavez Justices who were alternates of the Court. In this manner and with a single stroke, the Government now has a majority in the Court and all of the Halls but the Civil Hall, the less political one. This simple act, makes the new Supreme Court bill unnecessary, so don’t be surprised if all of a sudden the Constitutional Hall rules that the bill as approved by the National Assembly is unconstitutional. Amazing that they did not think of this clever subterfuge earlier. I am sure that whoever thought of it will be handsomely rewarded.
The Devil's Excrement 
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