Under the current Venezuelan Constitution President Maduro can dissolve the National Assembly if it infringes on the interests of the country or the people.
Looking at this chart published in the Venezuelan United Socialist Party newspaper Cuatrofdigital we can see that only a small amount of Chavistas actually switched sides in the December 6th legislative election. The Chavista voters who did this or who abstained were expressing a protest against the way the United Socialist Party and government have been functioning (or dysfunctioning). They did not consciously decide that they favor neoliberalism and United States domination of their country. President Maduro would be within his rights and acting responsibly to take any action up to and including dissolving the National Assembly and calling the people into action to defend the revolutionarmy process.
Two Venezuelan citizens were taken prisoner in Haiti on November 11th , brought in manacles to New York City and presented with charges of violating United States drug laws outside of the United States. It seems to me that the hypocritical United States government could be aiming for a "Panama - Noriega scenario " against Venezuela. I've posted several times my belief that no Latin American person should suffer for the fake, phony, hypocritical and racist US Drug War.
I imagine that the President of Venezuela might decide not to comply with any US demand for extradition of any Venezuelan even if the National Assembly were to order compliance with such a demand. It could be seen as an act against the interests and sovereignty of the country were the Assembly to do something like that.
This is a television spot produced for the ongoing legislative election campaign. Youthful Chavistas tell whoever needs to know that they are an organized battalion and that the Chavista movement is going to triumph "como sea", or "by any means necessary. "
In order to hold on to a majority of the National Assembly the Chavista coalition needs to win 45% of the vote. Just as in the United States the electoral system gives more weight to rural votes than to urban votes. Ironically the system gives more weight to legislative election votes to citizens in pro Chavista strongholds while in the United States the system gives more weight to rural predominantly white states and districts, favoring the Republicans. This is why New Hampshire has the same two United States Senatos as does California with millions of more citizens than New Hampshire. More Americans voted for Democratic Congressional candidates yet the Republicans dominate Congress.
Surely the United States government and media see the hypocrisy of criticizing the Venezuelan government and system. But I want to go further here.- Chavism was evolved through efforts to improve the lives of the poor and to open up political activity and effectiveness to the disenfranchised majority. In the United States it's widely acknowledged that 99 % of the people have no effective input on policies that affect them. Chavism also was about Venezuela and other underdeveloped resource exporting countries taking charge of their resources and getting the best possible prices for them. It's certainly produced a mixed scorecard . It's undoubtable that the United States mobilized considerable resources to end dependency on imported oil and that among the goals was the important campaign to weaken Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, and to collapse their economies. President Maduro can be critcized for a lot of things but he's not lying when he points to economic warfare. Knowing all this does one willingly put the future of one's country, its sovereignty and future up to a vote? More likely one would fight like a wildcat win, lose or draw on the vote, for right against wrong.
Aporrea is a pro Socialist Venezuelan website that critcizes but also supports the Chavista government. It broke the story (in Venezuela) about the two nephews of the President of Venezuela who were arrested last Tuesday for allegedly trying to smuggle 800 kilos of cocaine into the United States. That Aporrea carried the story straight from US sources in itself is news.
I have said here that if it were up to me not one more Latin American cop, soldier, prosecutor, judge, journalist or innocent bystander would die for the United States' phony drug war. Recently there has been an increasing crescendo of accusations in the USA that the Chavista government has turned Venezuela into a "Narco State", an international drug smuggling hub. My first reaction is "pot, kettle, black. " I do not know if President Maduro's nephews are guilty or are being framed. Either has some credibility. If they're guilty, then they can be blamed for trying to make money by sending cocaine, a harmful and illegal drug to the population that risks jail and worse to get their hands on it- the drug consuming American people. They also would be guilty of opening Venezuela up for attack on Venezuela by providing a pretext, as phony and hypocriticalas it be.
According to Venezuelan Defence Minister Padrino Lopez the cocaine. laden small atircraft that crashed into Colombian waters on a trajectory from Venezuela had been fired upon and hit by a Venezuelan defense forces plane last Wednesday.
Venezuelan authorities notified Colombia that the plane was headed to Colombian airspace. The plane had originated in Central America, and had been loaded up with the cocaine at a remote makeshift airstrip inside Venezuela. Venezuela has a lengthy border with Colombia characterized as remote, of mountainous terrain with heavy forest cover. Colombia, is a US aligned country and is where 300 tons of cocaine were harvested last year. Venezuela has no commercial scale cocaine farming but is used as a transit point by Colombian drug gangs. Millions of Colombians live in Venezuela.
The United States, whose Drug Enforcement Administration agents were recently said by the US Justice Department to have been provided with prostitutes paid for by Colombian drug gangs, is now "investigating" several leaders of Venezuela's government for drug trafficking and money laundering.
Clearly the cocaine at question originated in Colombia, where corrupt US DEA agents have been supervising "anti drug" activities while enjoying the company of prostitutes paid for by Colombian drug gangs over the past few years.
