Venezuela takes away funds from opposition mayor

[Bacchus39]

Source: AP

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela's National Assembly has approved a law that gives control over the budget of an opposition-run city to an official appointed by President Hugo Chavez.

Under the law passed by the predominantly pro-Chavez assembly late Tuesday, nearly all of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma's budget and services will be transferred to a new federal authority in Venezuela's capital.

The new law will go into effect following its approval by the president, the assembly said in a statement.

Ledezma criticized the move Wednesday, calling it unconstitutional and accusing Venezuela's judicial and legislative powers of following orders from Chavez.





Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090429/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_opposition_mayor

---

news from a "real" democracy.

[Idealism]

1. Something needs to be done about opposition mayors that encourage strife

and worker strikes for no reason. Not a person to be trusted running a city. Would you prefer that he get removed from office ahead of the Constitutionally mandated elections? No, you would still be crying about that being anti-democratic.

[Bacchus39]

3. so we should ignore the people's choice in the November election?

and just appoint a Chavez lackey?

No, I would not prefer the mayor be removed since he was just elected. what are you talking about?

[Joe Chi Minh]

12. The welfare of the country, as a whole, is more important than that of a fractious,

self-serving city minority.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

16. I say that about NYC, DC, Chicago, and SFO almost daily

[Freddie Stubbs]

5. The voters of Caracas must like his actions, as they just elected him Mayor last year

[ProgressiveProfessor]

17. That could have been said about a certain mayor of London too

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Livingstone

[WriteDown]

2. Why doesn't this sound good.

Cue the apology squad.

[Bacchus39]

4. this is why the people elected him mayor, they knew Chavez would appoint an even better

mayor.

[Dr.Phool]

8. !

:rofl:

[Joe Chi Minh]

13. No apologies from me. Are you kidding?

[iandhr]

6. this is very

undemocratic

its saying vote for US or we can cut your funding.

[Dreamer Tatum]

7. We just need Judi Lynn to explain why it's good for everyone involved

I'm sure she'll be along to explain it to us shortly.

[ohio2007]

9. don't hold your breath waiting

waiting in line for a reply on some threads still
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=3831852&mesg_id=3831852





http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bDY0DfEjmo&feature=related

[WriteDown]

10. Hey...

I'm post #3 there. Sweet.

[Joe Chi Minh]

14. Oh, no. It's very democratic. Just not parochial.

[harmonicon]

18. did you miss the part about how a law was passed by an assembly?

How is this not democratic? Once anyone has been elected to anything should it be impossible for any new laws to be passed which may some how impact how that elected official performs his or her job? If so, no new laws could ever be passed in the US that effect all US senators, because at any one time there will be a sitting senator. Lobbying reform? Forget about it - we can't go passing laws that an elected official, like Trent Lott, doesn't like, now can we? No, that would be undemocratic.

[Joe Chi Minh]

11. On, no...... Say it isn't so!

[MasonJar]

15. When these Perry types want to secede because the people are finally getting rights

I can hardly weep over their loss of power. They have been oppressing the indigenous people for centuries. Hopefully it is payback time.

[JackRiddler]

25. Please explain: "Perry" - thanks.

[Vidar]

39. LMAO.

[Moderate2008]

19. Chavez really is a thug. He needs to go. (nt)

[Arctic Dave]

20. He is ? Do you two talk a lot to each other?

[Arctic Dave]

21. So this was passed under an assembly (will of the people)

"Under the law passed by the predominantly pro-Chavez assembly late Tuesday, nearly all of Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma's budget and services will be transferred to a new federal authority in Venezuela's capital.

The new law will go into effect following its approval by the president, the assembly said in a statement."

This isn't even a law yet until signed by Chavez. What if he doesn't sign it, is he side stepping the will of the people?

[ConcernedCanuk]

22. On Friday, the government increased the minimum wage by 10%. It plans to increase the wage by anothe...

.
.
.

On Friday, the government increased the minimum wage by 10%. It plans to increase the wage by another 10% on September 1st.

yeah

nasty man that Hugo

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4410

oh yeah, another nasty thing Hugo did

"To control inflation, President Hugo Chávez called on his Council of Ministers on Wednesday to extend a freeze on rent prices "

USA should be so lucky

[WriteDown]

23. I've always thought the minimum wage in the US...

Should be 100$ an hour. I could finally get that house on the beach I want.

Chavez may need to brush up on econ 101.

[JackRiddler]

24. Well, you've got the "libertarian" economic rhetoric down

Econ 101 is religious instruction.

[WriteDown]

26. It also tends to be reality based....

google food shortages and Venezuela. Nothing surprising there.

[JackRiddler]

27. Why don't you google "hunger in America"?

Nothing surprising there, either.

[WriteDown]

29. Not even comparable.

Food shortages and hunger are two very different things with different causes.

Thanks for the correction.

[JackRiddler]

32. Two.

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. Very reminiscent of Margaret Thatcher's abolition of the Greater London Council

when Ken Livingstone proved too popular a leader: http://www.election.demon.co.uk/glc/glccomment.html

Sad to see Chavez imitating that old bag.

[Peace Patriot]

30. Venezuela has the most transparent elections in the world, so laws passed by those elected

in transparent elections are the closest we can get to "the will of the people" in a representative democracy. If the elected National Assembly wants federal control of Caracas, they have every right to pass that law. We have a similar situation in Washington DC.

Caracas is the seat of government. It was the stage for the 2002 coup attempt. The rightwing political opposition in Venezuela is dangerous. They have been involved in numerous treasonous plots against the leftwing majority government of the country, with funding and other support from the Bushwhacks (our USAID, CIA and other tax dollars at work). It must have been very worrisome, indeed, to have the rich, rightwing urban elite--the urban oil elite created by previous fascist governments in gross neglect of the rest of the country--elect a mayor of part of Caracas (the rich part) who will control federal dollars and federal-funded services, and, even more important, the police (a critical power lever in a coup situation).

People who criticize increased federal control in Venezuela by a transparently elected president and transparently elected members of the National Assembly tend to be blind to recent and past history, as well as blind to the facts about Venezuela's transparent election system. If the people of Venezuela feel they need to protect themselves and their government against the rightwing plots of the urban oil elite, they have every right to do so. I say, more power to them. They are obviously a smart people, well aware of the forces arrayed against social justice and good government. Who suffers from a strong federal government? Exxon Mobil, et al--that's who! Who suffered here, when FDR took a strong hand in our federal government? The rich fuckwads who caused the Great Depression. Strong federal governments that work for the people against corporate predators and rich elites are always called "dictatorships" by the greedy fuckers who want to exploit and impoverish others. FDR was called a "dictator" by the same kind of exploiters. It was a laughable charge then, against FDR, and it's a laughable charge now, against Chavez--by people who themselves are the real would-be dictators.

If Barack Obama found that the mayor of Washington DC was allied with the oil-rich secessionists in Texas, would he not be justified--and would Congress not be justified--in curtailing the power of that mayor by every legal and kosher political means possible? You bet they would. The rich oil elite in Caracas is allied with the rightwing secessionists in the oil rich state of Zulia in Venezuela. They are a menace to democracy and to the Chavez government's social justice policies, which have huge majority support in the country. What they want to do to Venezuela is similar to what the Bushwhacks and their fascist allies tried to do to Bolivia, this last September: split off the oil/gas rich provinces into a fascist mini-state in control of the resources. They need to be curtailed for the stability of the country and the success of peaceful democratic improvement and social progress. They had their chance in Venezuela for many decades, and literally ruined the country with gross neglect, malfeasance and greed. Though they may hold small pockets of power--in Zulia, in downtown Caracas--their day is over. Their policies failed, miserably. And they are not democrats. Their idea is rule by rich elites, for the benefit of rich elites, and exclusion of the poor majority, and further impoverishment of the poor majority--including no schools, no health care, no services at all for the poor, massive illiteracy and gross neglect of infrastructure, local manufacturing, small business and food security. That is their legacy--that Venezuela could not feed itself, and the poor could not even read, let alone bootstrap themselves into good jobs and decent lives. Those wretched policies are what the people of Venezuela are trying to overcome and reverse, through democratic means and the election of a national government that acts in their interest. Those who criticize the actions of that national government--such as this one, federal control of Caracas--seem oblivious to this history.

[WriteDown]

31. ......

Bwahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahhahahahah

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[ronnie624]

33. There's no surprise

in seeing you ignore completely, the points in the messages to which you reply, especially those of Peace Patriot. Snark, silly icons and right-wing rhetoric are standard fare from you.

[WriteDown]

34. Too easy....

There is nothing in the article that supports his argument and I don’t see any source that supports his argument. Is Caracas really the same as DC? DC is like a mini-state and is governed by Congress. Is Caracas like that? I'd also like to see the world rankings on election transparency.

Also his FDR sig line is a misquote.

The actual quote is:

"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.

Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred."


Edited for very poor grammar.

[bitchkitty]

36. Wow, what a clever retort.

You did not address a single thing PeacePatriot said. You would rather gather together all your little friends with their tired old memes - dictator, thug, ad nauseum - and all join in a virtual circle jerk of cynicism and anti-socialist rhetoric. Aren't you ashamed of yourself? You should be.

[ohio2007]

35. Venezuela seizes additional 35 oil contractors for a total of 76

When "they" run out of things to take over that are foreign owned.Who do they take from next?

The Ministry of Energy and Petroleum reported on Wednesday on the seizure of 35 oil service suppliers which operated mainly in Lake Maracaibo, in addition to 39 business that were taken by the state last week.

State-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa) was instructed to "take over the operations and the immediate possession of the facilities, documents, goods and equipments" of these companies, according to the Official Gazette released on Wednesday.

Most of the seized companies are engaged in transportation of staff and materials, as well as maintenance and barges towing. There are also contractors of docks and dikes.

The Simco consortium, with a stake of US Wood Group, is in the list of the seized companies as the only firm with a foreign interest. It used to provide services of water flooding for maintenance of oil deposits.

This is the transparency the people voted for ?
I can wait to see what the transparency looks like the day after the "alleged" Rule By Decree ends.

[bitchkitty]

37. I'm glad to see that Democracy is still alive and well in Venezuela.

Despite all efforts, both here and there, to destroy it.

Rock on Hugo! Te amo!!!!

[AlphaCentauri]

38. Pass the knife and fork please

for these thin-crusted bella pizzas