VENEZUELA: Thousands of Venezuelans march to show support for Chavez referrendum

Hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets on Sunday (November 04) to show support for President Hugo Chavez's proposal to scrap presidential term limits in a package of constitutional changes that Venezuelans are likely to approve in a referendum next month. "We are here on the streets with happiness, without hate, and with much conviction. We are marching to show our people the majority support that we have for the reform. Yes, for reform and for the revolution," said Venezuela's Minister of Energy and Mines, Rafael Ramirez. Polls show many Venezuelans oppose centralizing presidential power but favor sweeteners the socialist leader has included in the package, such as reducing the workday to six hours and giving social security benefits to unregistered taxi drivers. The opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, university students and rights groups have denounced the scores of proposed changes to the constitution as an authoritarian power grab by a man who has vowed to rule for decades. Protests against the proposal have turned violent. Chavez was expected to address his supporters later on in the day. Wall Street is concerned that the package will further chill investment, especially after the anti-U.S. president decreed a raft of nationalizations earlier this year with the vow of making the major oil exporter a socialist state. The package also would strip the central bank of its autonomy, give Chavez control over international reserves, empower authorities to detain citizens without charge and open the way to censoring the media in so-called political emergencies. With only a month available for a debate on the measures, the president easily should win a vote that mainly will be a reflection of his popularity among the majority poor who benefit from his spending of the OPEC nation's oil bonanza on clinics, schools and food subsidies, pollsters say. Without the law change, the man who calls Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor would leave office in 2013. Chavez, who has been in power since 1999, won a landslide re-election last December and says he needs more time to create a socialist state that can help counter U.S. "imperialism."

ITN Source | November 5, 2007

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