Standard procedure for Chavez to violate the Constitution

Published: Sunday, September 05, 2010

VenEconomy: It has already become standard procedure for the Hugo Chavez administration to violate the Constitution and the laws of the Republic whenever it feels like it, to suit its interests. It resorts to this practice to deal with any kind of circumstance, from the crisis of PDVAL's rotting food to the sinking of the Aban Pearl gas platform to matters having to do with elections.

The infringements of the Electoral Procedures Act committed by government officials and, in particular, by the President of the Republic are becoming ever more blatant.

This Thursday, September 2, Vicente Diaz, a director of the National Electoral Council (CNE), urged President Chavez and the rest of the country's government officials to respect the election campaign rules and to abide by the Electoral Procedures Act. Using videos, Diaz gave examples of these violations committed by the President, among them:

1) defamatory remarks about the democratic unity alliance candidates made by Hugo Chavez and his promotion of candidates of the government party, PSUV, in a nationwide networked broadcast, in violation of Article 145 of the Constitution and Article 17 of the Electoral Processes Act, which expressly forbids government officials to serve any political party or act in its favor;

2) the use of the national flag by the President when passing over to PSUV candidates during a television broadcast, even though the law forbids the use of patriotic symbols in election campaigns; and

3) the words, "We're going to give the opposition a beating on September 26," spoken by the President of the Republic at a public event broadcast in a nationwide networked broadcast.

Despite the gravity of the accusations, Diaz fell short ... he failed to mention, for example, that, while the President has suspended his Sunday program, Alo Presidente, for the duration of the election campaign as proof of his alleged political impartiality, Chavez has continued to make abusive use of presidential nationwide, networked broadcasts and programs on the government-controlled television channels to campaign in favor of PSUV candidates.

This was made patently obvious that same Thursday, September 2, when nearly all the government channels broadcast the electoral event "Hugo Chavez and candidates to the National Assembly for the PSUV" (the President's own party) from Maracaibo, while CNE director Tibisay Lucena gave a press conference to reject Vicente Diaz' accusations and give "guarantees" of the CNE's impartiality.

The cherry on the cake was when President Chavez, still campaigning in flagrante and in his best dictatorial style, attacked Vicente Diaz and threatened to take him to court.