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I was reading through an article about some Iran-Venezuela anti-U.S. fund and I came across this:
In a speech earlier Saturday, Chavez called for the U.S. government to accept "the new realities of Latin America," as he brushed aside restrictions that limit presidents to two consecutive terms. He vowed to stay in office beyond 2013, when his term expires, saying he would revise the constitution to get rid of presidential term limits.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070114/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_chavez_2I'm trying to think of examples in history where a democratically-elected leader has quashed democratic norms in an attempt to seize totalitarian power. Hitler's emergency powers in 1933 comes to mind, but there have to be others as well.
We may be witnessing a dictatorship in the making:[url url=http://Chavez gets OK to approve laws by decree]Chavez gets OK to approve laws by decree[/url]
We may be witnessing a dictatorship in the making:[url url=http://Chavez gets OK to approve laws by decree]Chavez gets OK to approve laws by decree[/url]
I think this was a forgone conclusion when the man took power. Now he is dispensing with the formalities. 🙂
any parrelells with this man and Castro? I know Castro took his power by force and Chavez was elected but down the road could we be seeing a new cuba without the communisim?
Are those two different questions? I think a Cuba without Communism might be possible; Castro's successors might not want to stay out of the world economy any longer. However, it looks like a Socialist Venezuela is what we're going to have…or at least until the country realizes that it's in over its head by nationalizing the oil industry….or when foreign investors don't give the country a second look.
Speaking of Cuba, why is Gitmo there? Do we control some of Cuba? If this isn't a simple answer, I'll start a new thread.
I can move this thread if you want. Guantanamo Bay has been used by the U.S. military from before Castro – I believe back to the Spanish American War. I heard one time that the U.S. still sends regular payments to Cuba for use of the land, but the amount has not changed since Castro took over (it's therefore quite small). I think that Cuba has yet to cash one of these checks. The land outside Gitmo is mined and obviously the border is going to be watched closely. I should take a look at Google satellite images of the area.
Guantanamo Bay is large – I noticed a landing strip right near the southern shoreline at the mouth of the Bay, and I assume this is U.S. controlled.I found this on Wikipedia:
A perpetual lease for the area around Guant?namo Bay was offered February 23, 1903, from Tom?s Estrada Palma, an American citizen, who became the first President of Cuba. The Cuban-American Treaty gave, among other things, the Republic of Cuba ultimate sovereignty over Guant?namo Bay while granting the United States "complete jurisdiction and control" of the area for coaling and naval stations.
Ok, now I see where the U.S. jurisdiction is:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Guantanamo.jpg
