House Concurrent Resolution 328
(slightly edited with comments and facts added)
Whereas President Hugo Chávez Frías was democratically elected President of Venezuela in 1998 and reelected in 2000 under the Venezuelan Constitution of 1999; Whereas President Chávez came to power promising to address the problems of corruption and poverty which plagued previous governments; (How bad is this?)
Whereas President Chávez made sweeping changes to the political landscape in Venezuela, including the approval of a new constitution; (Implies Chávez wrote it himself and caused it to be adopted by undemocratic means. But
the new Constitution of Venezuela was adopted with the cooperation of the opposition. It was the first in Venezuelan history adopted by popular referendum.
The constitutional process was one of the most democratic processes in the history of Latin America.)
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Whereas Venezuela signed the Inter-American Democratic Charter on September 11, 2001, committing the Venezuelan Government to guarantee ``the essential elements of representative democracy . . . respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, access to the exercise of power in accordance with the rule of law, the holding of periodic, free, and fair elections based on secret balloting and universal suffrage . . . the pluralistic system of political parties and organizations, and the separation of powers and independence of branches of governmen;t'' (Again, how bad is this?)
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· President Chávez through the recent congressional election now has full control over every institution of the Venezuelan Government, effectively silencing any opposition and eliminating any political space; (He did it by winning at the ballot box. For some reason the resolution fails to note that
the Venezuelan opposition has no qualms about trying to impose its will through force. (On July 25, 2004 former Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez, was quoted by Agence France Presse as calling for the violent ouster of President Chávez, Specifically, the ex-president said: “I am working to remove Chávez. Violence is the way that will cause this to happen. It is the only way we have… Meaning that winning through democratic elections is not an option due to their lack of support. As for full control, the opposition, seeing that they would be badly defeated in open elections, boycotted the ballot thereby losing out in the election entirely.)
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Whereas President Chávez has stacked the supreme court and lower courts with loyalist judges, severely crippling the independence of the judiciary; (By making presidential appointments, just as they do in many other countries);
· The Venezuelan government supports radical forces in Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador in an effort to destabilize the already fragile democratic governments, (President Chávez has given economic support to his neighbors in South America, including buying up some of Argentina's debt, purchasing Ecuador's bonds, developing a pipeline to bring oil and gas to neighbors. The leaders of these nations are not complaining.) and President Chávez stifles media outlets through punitive legislation.
Venezuela has an energetic, free and combative radio, television and newspaper establishment.... ("The private media in Venezuela is among the most outspoken, anti-government media in the world," according to
John Dinges, a Colombia University journalism professor.) For more on the status of the media in countries which are allied with the Bush adminsitration,) click here.
Whereas President Chávez and his supporters have stated their intention to use their full control of the national assembly to change the constitution to allow him to remain in power until 2030, well beyond current constitutional limits; (But such a change cannot happen solely by passage in the National Assembly. After a reform is approved by the National Assembly (by 2/3 majority. cf., art. 343.5), it must be submitted to referendum within 30 days.)
Chávez has taken steps to eliminate traditional labor unions; (They didn't represent the workers. The competing labor union, Union National de Trabajadores (UNT) is not a government creation. The UNT was established by workers concerned about the close relationship between the old union federation (the CTV) and the Venezuelan Chamber of Commerce (FEDECAMARAS), and in response to worker fears that the CTV was too closely aligned with non-democratic movements within opposition parties. This was made evident when CTV Secretary General Carlos Ortega emerged as a leading media spokesperson advocating the violent overthrow of President Chávez, and headed the fateful demonstration in April 2002 which launched the failed coup d'etat against Chávez.)
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There's a lot more, but you get the picture. Once again the US government is trying to interfere in the sovereign matters of another nation which is not threatening the US in any way. So, why is Mr Mack so bothered by what is going on there? Maybe this one paragraph of his resolution says it all:
Whereas President Chávez has developed a close relationship with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro who is providing President Chávez with advice, medical teams, sports coaches, ... (Uh, oh! Now we see how threatening this all really is.)
For the entire text of the resolution click here
For an excellent analysis, upon which many of my comments were based, check out:
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/downloads/hcr328.htm