When Hugo Chavez was running for President, he emphasized that he did not believe in representative democracy, but in participatory democracy. So much so, that Chavez refused to sign the declaration after the Quebec Summit, because it used representative rather than participatory.
I had to wonder what happened to that when the Venezuelan National assembly named this week a committee to choose a replacement for Central Bank Director Manuel Lago. Despite the fact that the National assembly is split almost 50/50 between pro-Chavez and anti-Chavez Deputies (there is a difference of only three Deputies out of 160), there is not a single representative of the opposition. It is two Ministers of the Cabinet, two pro-Chavez Deputies and a pro-Chavez member of the Academy of Sciences. Thus, the opposition will have absolutely no input into the decision. The decision was protested today by Proyecto Venezuela.
The Venezuelan Central Bank is the only important institution that is not totally controlled by the Government, but it looks like it will lose its independence soon as this Director and its President are replaced unilaterally.
Of course, Chavez left his beloved participatory democracy aside a long time ago. Committees that are supposed to have representation from non-Government organizations function without it, all Chavista candidates for Governor and Mayor were picked by Chavez himself and the opposition did not know the new Supreme Court Justices until their names came up for the vote in the Assembly. Oh shucks! Another broken promise.
The Devil's Excrement 
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