Jim asked: Any pen-pals have any inside news on these stories?
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Bandera Roja, a former Maoist/Albanian group,
have been the fascist shocktroops for the Vzlan
opposition for years--- eg., attacking students,
etc who were trying to keep gas stations open
during the 2002-3 oil lockout. Stalin G's position in this case is no surprise.
Here's the summary of the proposed
constitutional reforms done by Greg Wilpert:
Venezuelas Constitutional Reform: An Article-by-Article Summary
November 23rd 2007, by Gregory Wilpert Venezuelanalysis.com
The following is an article-by-article summary of
the changes being proposed to Venezuela's 1999
constitution. The summary is in no way official
and should only be used as an aid in making sense
of the proposed constitutional reform. The
official reform text is quite long (31 pages), as
it includes the full text of each to be changed
article, even if only one sentence or word was
changed in the article. Making out what, exactly,
the changes are relative to the original 1999
constitution can thus be a sometimes time-consuming and difficult task.
Venezuelans will vote on the reform on December
2nd and will do so in two blocks. Block "A"
includes President Chavez's original proposal, as
amended by the National Assembly, which would
change 33 articles out of the 350 articles in the
constitution. Also included in block A are
another 13 articles introduced by the National
Assembly. Block "B" includes another 26 reform
articles proposed by the National Assembly.
Voters may vote "Yes" or "No" on each block.
----------
Reform Question: "Are you in agreement with the
approval of the constitutional reform project,
passed by the National Assembly, with the
participation of the people, and based in the
initiative of President Hugo Chavez, with its
respective titles, chapters, and transitional,
derogative, and final dispositions, distributed in the following blocks?"
[Articles in italics are those proposed by the
National Assembly, non-italic articles were proposed by the President.]
Block A
Section II. Politico-Territorial Division of the
Country: President may declare special military
and development zones, citizens have a new "right to the city."
Art. 11 - Allows the President to decree special
military regions for the defense of the nation.
Also, it would allow him to name military
authorities for these regions in a case of emergency.
Art. 16 - Allows the president to decree, with
permission from the National Assembly, communal
cities, maritime regions, federal territories,
federal municipalities, island districts, federal
provinces, federal cities, and functional
districts. Also the president may name and remove
national government authorities for these
territorial divisions (these do not, however,
supplant the existing elected authorities in these regions).
Art. 18 - Provides a new right, the right to the
city, which says that all citizens have the right
to equal access to the city's services or
benefits. Also names Caracas, the capital as the
"Cradle of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, and
Queen of the Warairarepano" [an indigenous name
for the mountain range surrounding Caracas].
Section III. Citizen Rights and Duties: Voting
age lowered to 16 years, gender parity in
candidacies, creation of councils of popular
power, social security fund for self-employed,
reduction of workweek to 36 hours, recognition of
Venezuelans of African descent, free university
education, introduction of communal and social property.
Art. 64 - Lowers the minimum voting age from 18 to 16 years.
Art. 67 - Requires candidates for elected office
to be set up in accordance with gender parity,
reverses the prohibition against state financing
of campaigns and parties, and prohibits foreign funding of political activity.
Art. 70 - Establishes that councils of popular
power (of communities, workers, students,
farmers, fishers, youth, women, etc.) are one of
the main means for citizen participation in the government.
Art. 87 - Creates a social security fund for the
self-employed, in order to guarantee them a
pension, vacation pay, sick pay, etc.
Art. 90 - Reduction of the workweek from 44 hours to 36.
Art. 98 - Guarantees freedom for cultural
creations, but without guaranteeing intellectual property.
Art. 100 - Recognition of Venezuelans of African
descent, as part of Venezuelan culture to protect
and promote (in addition to indigenous and European culture).
Art. 103 - Right to a free education expanded from high school to university.
Art. 112 - The state will promote a diversified
and independent economic model, in which the
interests of the community prevail over
individual interests and that guarantee the
social and material needs of the people. The
state is no longer obliged to promote private enterprise.
Art. 113 - Monopolies are prohibited instead of
merely being "not allowed." The state has the
right to "reserve" the exploitation of natural
resources or provision of services that are
considered by the constitution or by a separate
law to be strategic to the nation. Concessions
granted to private parties must provide adequate benefits to the public.
Art. 115 - Introduces new forms of property, in
addition to private property. The new forms are
(1) public property, belonging to state bodies,
(2) direct and indirect social property,
belonging to the society in general, where
indirect social property is administered by the
state and direct is administered by particular
communities, (3) collective property, which
belongs to particular groups, (4) mixed property,
which can be a combination of ownership of any of the previous five forms.
Section IV. Functions of the State: Creation of
popular power based in direct democracy,
recognition of missions for alleviating urgent
needs, foreign policy to pursue a pluri-polar
world, devolution of central, state, and
municipal functions to the popular power,
guaranteed revenues for the popular power.
Art. 136 - Creates the popular power, in addition
to the municipal, state, and national powers.
"The people are the depositories of sovereignty
and exercise it directly via the popular power.
This is not born of suffrage nor any election,
but out of the condition of the human groups that
are organized as the base of the population." The
popular power is organized via communal councils,
workers' councils, student councils, farmer
councils, crafts councils, fisher councils,
sports councils, youth councils, elderly
councils, women's councils, disables persons'
councils, and others indicated by law.
Art. 141 - The public administration is organized
into traditional bureaucracies and missions,
which have an ad-hoc character and are designed
to address urgent needs of the population.
Art. 152 - Venezuela's foreign policy is directed
towards creating a pluri-polar world, free of
hegemonies of any imperialist, colonial, or neo-colonial power.
Art. 153 - Strengthening of the mandate to unify
Latin America, so as to achieve what Simon
Bolivar called, "A Nation of Republics."
Art. 156 - Specifies the powers of the national
government, adding powers that are spelled out in
earlier and in later articles in greater detail.
New powers of the national government include the
ordering of the territorial regime of states and
municipalities, the creation and suspension of
federal territories, the administration of
branches of the national economy and their
eventual transfer to social, collective, or mixed
forms of property, and the promotion,
organization, and registering of councils of the popular power.
Art. 157 - The national assembly may attribute to
the bodies of the popular power, in addition to
those of the federal district, the states, and
the municipalities, issues that are of national
government competency, so as to promote a
participatory and active democracy (instead of
promoting decentralization, as was originally stated here).
Art. 158 - The state will promote the active
participation of the people, restoring power to
the population (instead of decentralizing the state).
Art. 167 - States' incomes are increased from 20%
to 25% of the national budget, where 5% is to be
dedicated to the financing of each state's communal councils.
Art. 168 - Municipalities are obligated to
include in their activities the participation of councils of popular power.
Art. 184 - Decentralization of power, by its
transfer from state and municipal level to the
communal level, will include the participation of
communities in the management of public
enterprises. Also, communal councils are defined
as the executive arm of direct democratic citizen
assemblies, which elect and at any time may
revoke the mandates of the communal council members.
Art. 185 - The national government council is no
longer presided over by the Vice-President, but
by the President. Its members are the President,
Vice-President(s), Ministers, and Governors.
Participation of mayors and of civil society
groups is optional now. Previously the federal
governmental council (as it was called) was
responsible for coordinating policies on all
governmental levels. Now it is an advisory body
for the formulation of the national development plan.
Section V. Organization of the State: President
may name secondary vice-presidents as needed,
presidential term extended and limit on
reelection removed, may re-organize internal
politico-territorial boundaries, and promotes all military officers.
Art. 225 - The president may designate the number
of secondary vice-presidents he or she deems
necessary. Previously there was only one Vice-President.
Art. 230 - Presidential term is extended from six
to seven years. The two consecutive term limit on
presidential reelection is removed.
Art. 236 - New presidential powers as specified
in other sections of the reform are listed here,
which include the ordering and management of the
country's internal political boundaries, the
creation and suspension of federal territories,
setting the number and naming of secondary
vice-presidents (in addition to the first
vice-president), promote all officers of the
armed forces, and administrate international
reserves in coordination with the Central Bank.
Art. 251 - Adds detail to the functioning of the
State Council, which advises the president on all matters.
Art. 252 - Composition of the State Council
changed to include the heads of each branch of
government: executive, judiciary, legislature,
citizen power, and electoral power. The president
may include representatives of the popular power
and others as needed. Previously the council
included five representatives designated by the
president, one by the National Assembly, one by
the judiciary, and one by the state governors.
Art. 272 - Removal of the requirement for the
state to create an autonomous penitentiary system
and places the entire system under the
administration of a ministry instead of states
and municipalities. Also, removes the option of
privatizing the country's penitentiary system.
Section VI. Socio-Economic System: Weakening of
the role of private enterprise in the economic
system, possible better treatment of national
businesses over foreign ones, no privatization
any part of the national oil industry, taxation
of idle agricultural land, removal of central bank autonomy.
Art. 299 - The socio-economic regimen of the
country is based on socialist (among other)
principles. Instead of stipulating that the state
promotes development with the help of private
initiative, it is to do so with community, social, and personal initiative.
Art. 300 - Rewording of how publicly owned
enterprises should be created, to be regionalized
and in favor of a "socialist economy", instead of "decentralized."
Art. 301 - Removal of the requirement that
foreign businesses receive the same treatment as
national businesses, stating that national
businesses may receive better treatment.
Art. 302 - Strengthening of the state's right to
exploit the country's mineral resources,
especially all those related to oil and gas.
Art. 303 - Removal of the permission to privatize
subsidiaries of the country's state oil industry
that operate within the country.
Art. 305 - If necessary, the state may take over
agricultural production in order to guarantee
alimentary security and sovereignty.
Art. 307 - Strengthening of the prohibition
against latifundios (large and idle landed
estates) and creation of a tax on productive
agricultural land that is idle. Landowners who
engage in the ecological destruction of their land may be expropriated.
Art. 318 - Removal of the Central Bank's autonomy
and foreign reserves to be administrated by the
Central Bank together with the President.
Art. 320 - The state must defend the economic and
monetary stability of the country. Removal of
statements on the bank's autonomy.
Art. 321 - Removal of the requirement to set up a
macro-economic stabilization fund. Instead, every
year the President and the Central Bank establish
the level of reserves necessary for the national
economy and all "excess reserves" are assigned to
a special development and investment fund.
Section VII. National Security: Armed forces to
be anti-imperialist, reserves to become a militia.
Art. 328 - Armed forces of Venezuela renamed to
"Bolivarian Armed Force." Specification that the
military is "patriotic, popular, and
anti-imperialist" at the service of the
Venezuelan people and never at the service of an
oligarchy or of a foreign imperial power, whose
professionals are not activists in any political
party (modified from the prohibition against all
political activity by members of the military).
Art. 329 - Addition of the term "Bolivarian" to
each of the branches of the military and renaming
of the reserves to "National Bolivarian Militia."
Section VIII. Constitutional changes: Signature
requirements increased for citizen-initiated
referenda to modify the constitution.
Art. 341 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated constitutional amendments
from 15% to 20% of registered voters.
Art. 342 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated constitutional reforms from
15% to 25% of registered voters.
Art. 348 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated constitutional assembly
from 15% to 30% of registered voters.
Block "B"
Section III. Citizen Rights and Duties:
Non-discrimination based on sexual orientation
and health, increase in signature requirements
for citizen-initiated referenda, primary home protected from expropriation.
Art. 21 - Inclusion of prohibition against
discrimination based on sexual orientation and on health.
Art. 71 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated consultative referenda from
10% to 20% of registered voters.
Art. 72 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated recall referenda from 20%
to 30% of registered voters. Also, voter
participation set at minimum 40% (previously no
minimum was set, other than that at least as many
had to vote for the recall as originally voted for the elected official).
Art. 73 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated approbatory referenda from
15% to 30% of registered voters.
Art. 74 - Increase in the signature requirement
for citizen-initiated rescinding referenda from
10% to 30% of registered voters. In the case of
law decrees, increased from 5% to 30% of registered voters.
Art. 82 - Protection of primary home from
confiscation due to bankruptcy or other legal proceedings.
Art. 109 - Equal voting rights for professors,
students, and employees in the election of university authorities.
Section IV. Functions of the State: State and
local comptrollers appointed by national
Comptroller General, political divisions
determined on a national instead level.
Art. 163 - State comptrollers are to be appointed
by the national Comptroller General, not the
states, following a process in which
organizations of popular power nominate candidates.
Art. 164 - State powers are specified in
accordance with other articles of the reform.
States can no longer organize the
politico-territorial division of municipalities, but only coordinate these.
Art. 173 - Political divisions within
municipalities are to be determined by a national
law, instead of being in the power of the
municipalities. The creation of such divisions is
to attend to community initiative, with the
objective being the de-concentration of municipal administration.
Art. 176 - The municipal comptroller is to be
appointed by the national Comptroller General,
not the municipalities, following the nomination
of candidates by the organizations of popular power.
Section V. State organization: Councils of
popular power participate in the nomination of
members of the judiciary, citizen, and electoral
powers, procedures for removing members of these
branches specified more explicitly.
Art. 191 - National Assembly deputies who the
president has called to serve in the executive
may return to the National Assembly to finish
their term in office once they stop working in
the executive. Previously they lost their seat in the assembly.
Art. 264 - Specifies that Supreme Court judges
are to be named by a majority of the National
Assembly, instead of being left to a law. Also,
in addition to civil society groups related to
the law profession, representatives of the
popular power are to participate in the nomination process.
Art. 265 - Supreme Court judges may be removed
from office by a simple majority vote of the
National Assembly, instead of a two-thirds
majority and an accusation by the citizen power.
Art. 266 - Adds the ability of the Supreme Court
to rule on the merits of court proceedings
against members of the National Electoral
Council, in addition to its ability to do so in
the case of all other high-level government officials.
Art. 279 - Includes representatives of popular
power councils for the nomination of Attorney
General, Comptroller General, and Human Rights
Defender. Also, specifies that each of these may
be removed by a majority of the National
Assembly, instead of leaving the issue to a
separate law and a ruling from the Supreme Court.
Art. 289 - Adds to the Comptroller General's
powers the ability to name state and municipal comptrollers.
Art. 293 - Removes the National Electoral
Council's responsibility to preside over union elections.
Art. 295 - Inclusion of representatives from the
Popular Power in the nomination process of
members to the National Electoral Council.
Specifies that members may be chosen by a
majority of National Assembly members, instead of
a two-thirds majority. Election of electoral
council members is supposed to be staggered now,
where three are elected and then halfway through
their 7-year term, the other two are to be elected.
Art. 296 - Members of the National Electoral
Council may be removed by a majority of National
Assembly members, without the need of a prior ruling from the Supreme Court.
Section VIII. Constitutional exceptions: Right to
information no longer guaranteed during state of
emergency, emergencies to last as long as the conditions that caused it.
Art. 337 - Change in states of emergency, so that
the right to information is no longer protected
in such instances. Also, the right to due process
is removed in favor of the right to defense, to
no forced disappearance, to personal integrity,
to be judged by one's natural judges, and not to
be condemned to over 30 years imprisonment.
Art. 338 - States of alert, emergency, and of
interior or exterior commotion are no longer
limited to a maximum of 180 days, but are to last
as long as conditions persist that motivated the state of exception.
Art. 339 - The Supreme Court's approval for
states of exception is no longer necessary, only
the approval of the National Assembly.
Michael A. Lebowitz
Professor Emeritus
Economics Department
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby, B.C., Canada V5A 1S6
Director, Programme in 'Transformative Practice and Human Development'
Centro Internacional Miranda, P.H.
Residencias Anauco Suites, Parque Central, final Av. Bolivar
Caracas, Venezuela
fax: 0212 5768274/0212 5777231
http//:centrointernacionalmiranda.gob.ve
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