In clear violation of the Venezuelan Constitution and acting like the outright Dictator he is quickly becoming, President Hugo Chavez just ordered the takeover by the central Government of all of the maritime ports which are in the states of Zulia, Carabobo and Nueva Esparta. Coincidentally these states were won by opposition Governors in the November regional elections.
Just so that there is no doubt about the unconstitutional character of this order, this is Article 164, paragraph 10 of the 2000 Venezuelan Constitution:
Articulo 164: It is the exclusive competence of the States..
10. The conservation, administration and use of roads, highways, as well as ports and airports for commercial use, in coordination with the Executive Branch.
There is no grey area here, this is is the exclusive competence of the Governors, but Chavez wants to centralize everything and remove responsibilities from the democratically elected Governors who do not belong to his party. Chavez threatened to detain the Governors if they oppose the takeover by the Navy of the ports.
The true dictatorial face of Hugo Chavez is being shown to the world. Do we hear anything from the PSF’s?
March 15, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I’ve always been cautious about calling Venezuela a dictatorship. This has changed from today: Chávez has centralized many functions clearly belonging to other democratically elected organs, such as the governors. There’s the police, the roads, and now airports and ports. He’s leaving local authorities as empty shells….
As you say there’s no grey zone and Chávez now clearly has all power in his hands, so he’s effectively a dictator.