-->Im Laufe der Woche musste ich doch wieder einmal ziemlich staunen. Da wurde doch im ZDF Heute Journal über die Demonstrationen gegen vorzeitige Wahlen in Venezuela berichtet. Natürlich in dem gewohnten Bild. Chavez unterdrückt sein Volk, Chavez lässt keine freien Wahlen zu und die Bevölkerung ist eigentlich gegen ihn eingestellt und nur einige wenige würden auf seinen Befehl hin für seinen Machterhalt kämpfen. So nach dem Motto lasst endlich vorzeitige Wahlen zu und er wird abgewählt.

Kein Wort über die illegale Machtübernahme durch die Opposition usw.

Obwohl ich selbst absolut nichts von Chavez halte und ihn für sehr gefährlich halte, glaube ich, dass ZDF hat hier nicht objektiv genug berichtet. Es werden Vermutungen aufgestellt und diese als Tatsachen hingestellt. Nun bin ich niemand der eine"neutrale" Berichterstattung wünscht, ich möchte klare Meinungen hören, nur möchte ich diese auch als solche verstanden wissen. In diesem Falle ist FOX NEWS sogar noch objektiver als unser ZDF, denn die klaren wenn auch manchmal irrwitzigen Meinungen sind für mich sehr klar erkennbar, wenn auch nicht unbedingt von allen Zuschauern in den USA.

Selbst die Financial Times, die nicht viel für Chavez übrig hat schreibt da objektiver, als das ZDF berichtet:

"But the trend over the past six months has been in Mr Chávez's favour, with polls consistently showing a rise in his support rating."

Von der starken Unterstützung die Chavez offenbar noch immer erhält, hat man in besagtem ZDF Bericht absolut nichts gehört.

Vielleicht hat jemand hier im Board die entsprechende Berichterstattung von der ARD mitbekommen? Würde mich interessieren inwieweit diese sich vom ZDF unterscheidet?

Für mich ist dsa ZDF als seriöse Quellenangabe schon lange tot. Und für so einen Blödsinn mit Herrn Friedmann im Programmausschuss zahlt man auch noch Gebühren.

-->
hier im Radio vom Korrespondenten in Venezuela konnte man grossmehrheitlich nur
Positives über den Präsidenten erfahren.

So unterstützt er Menschen welche sich ausbilden lassen monatlich mit
€ 120.00 pro Person aus der Staatskasse.

Die Ausbildner sind voll des Lobes über diese weitsichtige Politik ihres
Präsidenten. 4/5 der Menschen in Venezuela sind arm und es herrscht eine
Arbeitslosigkeit von 20 - 25 %.

Chavez ist sehr sozial eingestellt, da er die reichlichen Gewinne aus den
Oel-Exporten u.A. den Aermsten zukommen lässt. Dies passt der CIA überhaupt
nicht in den Kram. Am liebsten würde man Chavez hängen sehen und einen
pro-amerikanischen Lakaien als Präsidenten küren.

Für diese Wahlen wird den USA dies noch nicht gelingen, obwohl sie massiv
darauf hin arbeitet.

Emerald.

-->Und N-Tv berichtet über 'Hunderttausende' die gegen Chavez auf die Strasse gehen, wärend 'einige Zehntausend' eine Gegendemonstration veranstalten.

Es ist tatsächlich so, dass es in Venezuela nur eine sehr dünne Oberschicht gibt, die in der Tat die meissten Medien bestimmen. Demgegenüber stehen die Massen, die in Chavez ihren Messias sehen.

Ich selbst war noch nie vor Ort, kann aber nur jedem empfehlen sich im Internet per Reiseberichten über die Situation dort zu informieren. ZDF, FAZ und konsorten taugen im Fall Venezuela nur für die Tonne.

-->Hier etwas zum bessern Verständnis

Gruß

K C




Petroleos de Venezuela: Loyalty to Chávez is all that matters
By Gustavo Coronel
July 3, 2004 - Oil production is plummeting, well drilling declines, exploration is almost non-existent, refineries are working at a fraction of capacity, exports lack quality control, gasoline supplies for the local market are unreliable, smuggling of products to Colombia and Brazil keeps prospering, maintenance is a thing of the past, industrial accidents are no longer news. This is a snapshot of Petroleos de Venezuela in 2004.

"Do not worry," says Chávez to his followers,"We control the company. This is all that matters. In this manner, the monies obtained from the sale of oil are coming directly into our hands, the hands of the revolution. We have stopped all this non-sense about the money going to the National Fisc through the Venezuelan Central Bank. We have stopped the non-sense about contracting through bidding. We have stopped the non-sense of having to have a national budget approved by the National Assembly in order to be able to spend the money. Since the Assembly is also in our hands, why should we lose time in going through the motions of a democracy in which we no longer believe?"

"We are in the middle of the second battle of Santa Inés. We are in a revolution. By definition revolution is not an orderly affair but a force that takes us where it will, not where we plan to go. We are like feathers carried by the wind of revolution...."

The vice-president of finance at PDVSA, Mr. Jose Rojas, smiles at the TV cameras and proudly declares:"This year we will not be able to deliver our financial statements in time to the US Securityies and Exchange Commission. We have internal operational difficulties."

"The objective," says Chávez,"is to stop this non-sense of delivering these statements to anyone abroad or here. Why should we account for the monies, which are ours to use, as we deem convenient? No one has the right to know about our affairs. We are a sovereign State. In addition, there are uses for the money that we do not want anyone to know about, uses that will further our revolution. This is the only important thing."

The vice-president of PDVSA, Mr. Rojas, explains further the situation within PDVSA:"We are doing all of our accounting manually," he says. Venezuelans listen to Rojas in awe. How is it possible, says Diego Gonzalez, a Venezuelan citizen, that a company that produces 2.5 million barrels per day (b/d), exports almost 2 million b/d, pays salaries to 40,000 employees, that has dozens of joint ventures and sells 450,000 b/d in the domestic market, should be doing its accounting by hand? This is preposterous, citizens say. How can managers responsible for this situation remain in the company? Why haven't the incompetent and corrupt been dismissed already?

"Precisely, this is the way we like it," says Chávez."Creating a black box in the finances of PDVSA allows us to do what we want, when we want it. Forget about shareholder meetings and financial statements. Zamora did not need those girlish refinements to get rid of the oligarchs. The managers of PDVSA are not there to manage, in the traditional sense of the word. They are there to serve the revolution."

Mr. Rojas adds:"We have so much money in our system that we want to buy back most of our debt. We also have given USD $1.7 billion to the Misiones and are creating two more funds for $1 billion each, one for agriculture and the other one for... some other social uses of the same importance." And the reporters ask him:"What about maintenance and production drilling?"

"Who needs more production?" says Chávez."The production we already have, at the prices we enjoy, is giving us all the money that we need. We are not greedy. The bond buyback was reported to me as a sensible operation, although some say that it was designed for us and our friends in the financial community to make a killing. This is not accurate and, at any rate, secondary to our main objective of escaping the overseeing of foreign agents like those at the Securities and Exchange Commission."

The story of the progressive disintegration of PDVSA keeps playing before the eyes of the nation and of the whole world. It is a story of corruption at the highest levels, of incompetence at managerial levels and of shameless impunity in the misuse of the national money. This is a crime that will someday have its Nuremberg because the damage to the country has been too great, in some areas almost irreversible. A whole generation of petroleum managers and technicians displaced by the barbarians is being lost to the nation forever. Millions of barrels of oil will never be produced. The tribe in power has prostituted the work ethics of the corporation.

-->
Gruß

K C


A Letter to Tim Padgett, a TIME Journalist
By Gustavo Coronel
July 21, 2004

_____

Dear Mr. Padgett:

I hope you had a good time in El Furrial, the oilfield near Maturin,
Eastern Venezuela, where PDVSA production still holds, due to its relatively early
stage of development. I am an old oilman, a geologist and, for the last
fifty years I have been very much involved in the Venezuelan oil industry,
both as an actor and a witness. It is as an oilman that I feel compelled to
tell you that your piece on the current President of Petroleos de
Venezuela, published by TIME, and titled"The Latin Oil Czar
<http://www.time.com/time/globalbusiness/article/0,9171,1101040726-665069,00
.html>," presents a highly distorted version of the situation of our oil
industry and a very sugary version of a person like Ali Rodríguez
<http://www.reconocelos.com/details.php?image_id=82&mode=search> who, ore than a Latin Oil Czar, should be defined as the man who has destroyed
Petroleos de Venezuela. I am not assuming that you wrote what you wrote in
bad faith. I am only surprised and disappointed that you chose to write a
very unbalanced piece, with only a brief critical intercalation by one of
the most competent former PDVSA managers, expelled in a grotesque and
unethical fashion by the government Rodríguez represents in PDVSA.

As you say in your piece, Ali Rodríguez was a Marxist terrorist in the
1960's but you fail to add that he participated in several terrorist acts
against oil installations, as well as in kidnappings and other violent
acts, against democratic Venezuelan governments. Contrary to what you
suggest, Rodríguez has never been a person particularly knowledgeable about
the oil industry. Maybe he organized oil"seminars" in the mountains but I
doubt that he knew what he was talking about. His companions were probably
impressed by Rodríguez, simply because in the land of the blind the one
eyed is king. The Venezuelan Left has always been notoriously ignorant about the
oil industry since they never had hands on experience but were mostly
reduced to the study in universities of Marxist economic theory. Few of
them ever had their shirts full of oil drilling mud.

You describe Rodríguez as perched in an office above Caracas. I would like
to add that this office used to be organized, clean and disciplined, during
pre-Chávez days. Rodríguez has allowed the rabble to install vending shacks
around the place and, at the height of the crisis of 2002, the
"revolutionary" mobs ate, got drunk, relieved themselves and slept in the
perimeter of the headquarters of what once was the third most important oil
corporation in the world. Even today the place looks like part of a bazaar,
rather than as headquarters of a corporation.

You claim that the"curtain is rising this summer on Rodriguez's most
interesting act yet. A five year, $37 billion plan...." I want to inform
you that this"Rodríguez" five year plan is very much the same five year
plan that PDVSA has been rolling over for the last years. There is very
little new about this plan. What is new and immoral is the deviation of
huge amounts of money directly from PDVSA to the Chávez government to feed the political campaigning of Chávez. What you call"anti-poverty initiatives"
are little more than political propaganda and special effects designed to
carry Chávez over the hump of the referendum that could oust him at the
mid-term of the presidency, due to his dismal performance. To call PDVSA,
as you do, a"development agency" plays into the hands of the government gang
and is, unfortunately, an example of substandard journalism since no
reference is made by you to the improvised and populist nature of the
"social" expenditure made with our national money, without transparency or
accountability.

You mention the oil strike by PDVSA employees but only use the government
version. The other version that is very well documented is that Chávez
himself provoked this strike in order to take political control of the
company. In fact, if you had done your homework, you would have found that
Chávez actually confessed to doing this, in a speech before the National
Assembly and in front of all the Diplomatic Corps. Check it up, Tim!

You suggest that Venezuelan oil production has more power to move OPEC's
prices than it really does. Venezuela is a second rate producer as compared
to the Middle East and to other non-OPEC producers such as Russia. Do not
overestimate the power of Venezuela to influence world oil prices.

You rightly assert that PDVSA, before Chávez, had become a model oil firm
but go on to say that Venezuelans viewed the company"as a den of arrogant,
pampered technocrats and a cookie jar for Venezuela's elite, whose
corruption...." Whereas no big and powerful corporation is ever trusted
by the common folk, PDVSA was accepted and appreciated by a vast majority
of Venezuelans. Only the Marxist and Radical Left, which had been rightly
excluded from getting their paws onto the company, felt hostility against
the company. The company did generate much money and passed it on to the
State to be utilized. They did not utilize the money themselves, except for
reinvestment purpose. Today the company has been sacked and is in the hands
of the inept. Look at the statistics on exploration, production, refining,
marketing and transport. You cannot hope to write objectively about PDVSA
or about Rodríguez without talking to the professional managers and not only
to the politicians siding with the government.

You are right in saying that Rodríguez has politicized the company. In
fact, he has prostituted the managerial principles on which this company was
based: Professionalism, freedom from political contamination, meritocratic
promotions, self-financing and normal operations. All of these principles
have been violated by Rodríguez and his gang. The deterioration of PDVSA is
the inevitable product of this perverted process.

A company that is run by the inept, which gives the money to the government
>for political purposes, which has no accountability, which cannot present
timely and accurate financial statements cannot hope to convince the nation
that it can be run by"a lefty as effectively as any capitalist CEO." This
is a lot of bull and you know it.

You mention that the Law of Hydrocarbons of 2001 (the baby of Rodríguez and
Silva Calderon) is resented (and rightly so) by"some" investors (all
investors, I should say) but that"the government is helping investors to
find ways around the Law." Don't you think that this highly inefficient and
hypocritical? You issue a law and then you help to break it under the
table!

odríguez comes across as impudent when he says that PDVSA will be
"visible" in the barrios. It is not the task of PDVSA to be visible in the barrios.
Its task is to manage efficiently the oil resources of Venezuela and to
obtain optimum income for the nation and not for a group of adventurers
that have installed a highly corrupt government in our country. It is
regrettable that you failed to mention this other side of the coin in your piece, non-
recommended for diabetics.

Tim, next time you visit us and want to write about oil, take some time to
talk to petroleum managers who converted PDVSA, during the last 25 years,
into one of the top three oil companies in the world. They are mostly very
competent, honest and have paid a high personal price to defend PDVSA from
the invasion of the incompetent. They have been temporarily overpowered but
we hope that, someday, PDVSA will be rescued from the paws of people like
the"Latin Oil Czar."

© 2004 Gustavo Coronel

<http://venezuelatoday.net/images/transparent.gif>
<http://venezuelatoday.net/images/transparent.gif>

________________________________________________________________
harla con tus amigos en línea mediante MSN Messenger:
http://messenger.latam.msn.com/

--> Wall Street Journal Desenmascara CRUDAMENTE a Chávez







The Wall Street Journal

New York, USA, viernes 6 de agosto de 2.004

El Tramposo Corazón de Chávez



Por

Mary Anastasia O'Grady

.

Versión Original en Inglés



Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has spilled tankers of oil revenue trying to create a respectable image abroad. From employing high-priced Washington law firms like Patton Boggs to setting loose his Beltway ambassador to float oil-for-allies schemes, little has been held back. In Venezuela he takes a different tack, regularly seizing the airwaves by >executive decree to smear and threaten his opposition and to foment hatred.It's worth highlighting this style of governance, based on propaganda and intimidation, as Venezuela's Aug. 15 national referendum approaches. On that date some 14 million registered voters will have the chance to rule"yes" or"no" on the question of whether Mr. Chavez ought to be removed from office, as the constitution allows.

Rationality suggests that given the torpedoed economy, the runaway murder rate and the more than four million anti-Chavistas who risked government harassment to sign a petition in favor of a recall vote earlier this year, Mr. Chavez's odds of survival are low if a clean and secret ballot is held. Yet in recent weeks, the chattering classes have begun to suggest that he can win fair and square. The Chavez government is a leading proponent of this line and is now claiming that all polls show it has a clear advantage of 15 to 25 points. More impartial parties also opine now that he could win, albeit in a tight race. For the record, I'm not buying it. Neither should the international community. There has never been much reason to doubt that Mr. Chavez would pull out all stops to remain in power. Only the"how" has been in play. Skepticism about the government's good faith has risen sharply ever since it tried to block the referendum by disallowing hundreds of thousands of legitimate petition signatures. Now critics are worried about the"tricks" Mr. Chavez might employ to prevail on Aug. 15. The sudden"spike" in pro-Chavez poll numbers ought to raise those suspicions even further. What better way to win >international acceptance of what would otherwise be an inexplicable Chavez victory than to set up such expectations ahead of time?

Since 1999 the bolivar has lost 71% of its value and according to Roberto Bottome, editor of the economic report Veneconomy, accumulated inflation is 187%. Veneconomy's latest issue cites an Andres Bello Catholic University estimate that"74.2% of Venezuela's population is living below the poverty line -- and 40% in critical poverty -- as compared with 56.5% and 21% in1998." Just as disturbing is the murder rate. Former Caracas police chief Ivan >Simonovis told Venezuelan newspaper El Universal this week that in the past five years, Caracas has suffered 28,000 homicides and only 7% of the cases have gone to trial. Most of the victims of this horrific killing wave are poor. Forgive us if we choke when being asked to swallow the Chavez line >that the masses are rallying to save his presidency. The findings of voter surveys must be ingested with a giant block of salt, >for the simple reason that Mr. Chavez's Bolivarian Circles of dedicated foot >soldiers, who work their turf much like Cuban committees to defend the >revolution, don't disappear when the pollsters come around. Venezuelans report that many poll interviews are done in people's homes, thus raising >doubts in the mind of the respondent about whether anonymity is possible.This lack of reliability in polls ought to be kept in mind since avenues for >pro-Chavez cheating have been left wide open.

As Jesuit priest and Andres Bello Catholic University rector Luis Ugalde emphasized during a visit toWashington on Wednesday there is great potential for government fraud. Among the many red flags he raised is the government's new system of recording the fingerprints of voters, ostensibly to deter multiple voting. The old system of indelible ink on the thumb worked fairly well. The new system, says Father Ugalde, has the potential to seriously slow down the process, creating long lines. It also raises fears that ballots will not be secret and thus that economic retribution is a possibility. As the single most important employer -- by way of the state-owned oil company and all of its related contractors -- the government can economically crush most Venezuelans by withdrawing either their job or their state benefits. There are also questions about the government's naturalization of over 200,000 immigrants and its efforts to block citizens who live outside the >country from voting. Veneconomy reports opposition charges that some 300,000 voters have had their polling stations reassigned, some to far away >locations; a pro-government group says the number is only 65,000 but the point remains: Voters are being harassed. So, too, are observers.

Father Ugalde says that the government wants to eliminate 18,000 trained referendum workers -- one-third of the total number trained to man the balloting"tables" -- because they signed the recall petition. The European Union will not send observers because Venezuela objected to the size of its team and its demand for free movement. The Carter Center will attend but its team will be sharply reduced. As a Goldman Sachs Emerging Markets report commented this week,"A significant number of other international organizations... with little to no experience in monitoring electoral events have also been invited, which could create room for the emergence of very different views over the same issues." Yet it is the assault on Sumate, a prominent citizens group formed to oversee elections, that gives the clearest impression that Mr. Chavez wants to retain cheating as an option. The NGO is the nation's best hope for a fair referendum and Mr. Chavez's actions suggest he views it as a threat. Using the fact that the group received money from the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy as a pretext, he has accused two of its leaders of treason. Nevertheless, Sumate promises to actively monitor the Aug. 15 vote. Mr. Chavez has raised his odds of survival by liberally"spending" on his constituents. His"missions" in the poorest neighborhoods, amounting to state handouts, doubtlessly win goodwill and could pay off at the polls. But >then why has he been relying so heavily on fear and propaganda?











"Venezuela is the only country in the world where a"fascist" Opposition calls for elections and the"democratic" Government rejects them!"--

Manuel Caballero

-->Hugo Chávez will den Sieg - koste es, was es wolle
von Hero Buss
San José - Betrügereien sollen Venezuelas Präsidenten vor der Amtsenthebung bewahren. Eine sensationelle politische Wende in letzter Stunde? Fast drei Jahre lang, bis zum vergangenen Juni, dümpelten Präsident Hugo Chávez und seine Regierung der"bolivarianischen Revolution" in der Gunst der venezolanischen Wähler um 30 Prozent Zustimmung. Jetzt, eine Woche vor dem Referendum, das über den Verbleib des Staatschefs im Amt entscheidet, sagen zwei Umfragen von US-Instituten zwischen Regierung und Opposition ein Kopf-an-Kopf-Rennen voraus, die Demoskopen der Revolution sehen ihren Chef gar um zwölf Prozentpunkte vorn. Der jubelte:"Am 15. August landen wir einen K.-o.-Sieg!"

Doch ob Chávez kippt oder bleibt, für einen Rekord hat er bereits gesorgt: Noch nie in der Geschichte lateinamerikanischer Demokratie hat eine Regierung versucht, mit so vielen Tricks und Manipulationen einen Volksentscheid zu eigenen Gunsten zu beeinflussen wie jetzt in Venezuela. Höchst peinlich wäre eine Niederlage für den Comandante allein schon deshalb, weil er dann Opfer einer eigenen Erfindung würde.

1999 verpasste er Venezuela eine"bolivarianische" Verfassung, die festschrieb, dass nach Ablauf der Hälfte der Amtszeit alle Mandatsträger, vom Gemeinderat bis zum Präsidenten, sich einem Referendum stellen müssen, wenn dies 20 Prozent der Wahlberechtigten mit ihrer Unterschrift fordern. Chávez:"die demokratischste Verfassung der Welt". Drei Mal sammelte die Opposition die notwendigen Signaturen. Beim ersten Mal stellte die Chávez ergebene Oberste Wahlbehörde (CNE)"Formfehler" fest, beim zweiten Mal"verdächtige Ähnlichkeiten" bei mehr als einer Million Schriftzügen.

Der Staatspräsident höhnte, Banker und"Oligarchen" hätten ihre"Lohnlisten kopiert". Als dann auch die dritte Aktion ein aus Regierungssicht negatives Ergebnis brachte, erkannte die CNE das Ergebnis erst nach massivem Druck der Organisation Amerikanischer Staaten (OAS) und des Jimmy-Carter-Zentrums für Menschenrechte an. Wahlbeobachter beider Organisationen hatten sehr genau mitgezählt und die Täuschungsmanöver aus dem Umkreis des Präsidenten entlarvt.

Wann sollte nun abgestimmt werden? Die CNE entschied sich für den letztmöglich Termin am 15. August. Vier Tage später jährt sich Chávez' Amtsantritt zum viertel Mal. Liegt bis dahin kein"offizielles" Ergebnis vor, sind nach dem Grundgesetz keine Neuwahlen mehr möglich, sondern der Vizepräsident übernähme für die restlichen beiden Jahre die Amtsgeschäfte.

Ideenreichtum auch bei der technischen Abwicklung. Venezuelas Regierung kaufte bei einem US-Unternehmen, an dem sie eine Minderheitsbeteiligung hält, 20 000 elektronische Wahlmaschinen mit Ja- und Nein-Knopf. Erst nach langem Hin und Her willigte sie ein, dass eine Papierkopie (wie bei Bankautomaten) jeden Abstimmungsvorgang zusätzlich dokumentiert. Und die jüngste Idee im Hindernisrennen zur möglichen Abwahl des Präsidenten: Nach Knopfdruck und Eingabe der Kopie in eine Urne müssen die Wähler an Spezialmaschinen ihren Fingerabdruck überprüfen lassen. Bei allen bisherigen Wahlen reichte die Vorlage des Personalausweises. Bei einer durchschnittlichen Dauer dieser Prozedur von vier Minuten könne nur ein Drittel der Wahlberechtigten ein gültiges Votum abgeben, rechnete die Opposition aus.

Beim Griff in die Trickkiste entwickelten sich die venezolanischen Revolutionäre zu Serientätern. Beispiele: Im Schnellverfahren stattete die Regierung in den vergangenen drei Monaten mehr als zwei Millionen bislang undokumentierte Landsleute mit Personalausweisen aus und ließ sie ins Wahlregister eintragen. Ebenso hurtig wurden 600 000 Kolumbianer, die bis dahin illegal im Land lebten, eingebürgert und flugs mit venezolanischen Papieren ausgestattet.

Im Ausland lebende Venezolaner, mit großer Mehrheit Chávez-Gegner, dürfen nur in den Konsulaten abstimmen, wenn sie sich legal im Gastland aufhalten. Die meisten von ihnen leben illegal in den USA.

Ausländische Wahlbeobachter wollte die CNE zunächst nur zulassen, wenn sie sich an (bis vor zwei Wochen vor dem Referendum nicht formulierte)"Spielregeln" hielten und vorab ankündigten, welche Wahllokale sie besuchen wollten. Die EU verzichtete daraufhin auf Entsendung von Beobachtern. Das Carter-Zentrum und die OAS harren dagegen aus. Ihnen wurde schließlich freier Zugang zu den Abstimmungslokalen zugesichert.

Tausende Oppositionelle klagten, man habe ihnen ohne vorherige Konsultation oft weit vom Wohnort entfernte neue Wahllokale zugeteilt. Fast eine Million erzwungener"Umzüge" will die Opposition im Wahlregister festgestellt haben. Besonders betroffen seien die von oppositionellen Gouverneuren regierten Teilstaaten.

Dass Hugo Chávez in den letzten Monaten mit illegal vom staatlichen Erdölkonzern PDVSA abgezweigten zwei Milliarden Dollar im ganzen Land Wahlgeschenke bei Parteifreunden verteilt und täglich durchschnittlich mindestens eine Stunde lang Radio- und Fernsehstationen für Eigenwerbung gleichschaltet und so für Propaganda-Zwecke nutzt, sind weitere Beschwerden der Opposition.

Es scheint, als gäbe es nichts, was Venezuelas Revolutionäre dem Zufall überlassen wollen. Selbst bei der Formulierung der Abstimmungsfrage gaben sich die Herren Genossen sehr große Mühe. Abgesegnet wurde schließlich folgender Text:"Sind Sie damit einverstanden, das Volksmandat des Bürgers Hugo Chávez Frias als Präsident der Bolivarianischen Republik Venezuela, erworben durch demokratische legitime Wahlen, für die aktuelle Amtszeit außer Kraft zu setzen?"

Artikel erschienen am Mo, 9. August 2004