Hmmm…I wonder. Seeing as Alan Garcia of Peru isn’t making any noises about socialism, unlike a certain Chavecito of Venezuela, I can’t see it happening. Can you?
Peru’s parliament has granted emergency powers to President Alan Garcia in order to deal with drug trafficking and organised crime.
Congress overwhelmingly approved the move but around 20 Congressmen walked out of the session before the vote.
President Garcia has promised not to abuse the powers, which are valid for the next 60 days.
He will only have the power to rule by decree on nine specific types of crime, most of which relate to trafficking.
Compare that, now, to Chavecito’s own (also time- and topic-limited) powers under the Ley Habilitante:
The eleven areas where Chavez will be allowed to pass laws for the next 18 months are:
1. Transformation of the state, where laws are to be passed that make the state more efficient, honest, participatory, rational, and transparent.
2. Popular (grassroots) participation, in the economic and social policies of the state, via planning, social comptrol, and the direct exercise of popular sovereignty.
3. Essential values for the exercise of public functions, so that corruption would be eradicated definitively, the strengthening of ethics, and the formation of public servants.
4. In the area of economic and social policy, so as to create a new sustainable economic and social model. The goal is to achieve equality and the equitable distribution of wealth through investment in health care, education, and social security.
5. Finances and taxation, to modernize the regulatory system in the monetary, banking, insurance, and tax systems.
6. Citizen and judicial security, for the improvement of citizen identification, migration control, and the fight against impunity.
7. Science and technology, so it is developed to satisfy the needs of education, health, environment, biodiversity, industrialization, quality of life, security, and defense.
8. Territorial order, for a new distribution and occupation of subnational space, so as to improve the activities of the state and of endogenous development.
9. Security and defense, for the development of the structure and organization of the Armed Forces.
10. Infrastructure, transport, and services, to promote the existing human and industrial potential for the optimization of land, rail, sea, river, and air transportation, as well as of telecommunications and information technology.
11. Energy sector, so that oil production in the Orinoco Oil Belt may be nationalized and turned into joint ventures, tax rates changed, and electricity companies nationalized, among other things.
Golly, that all sure sounds tyrannical to me. Especially the first four.
Even worse, Chavecito was granted these powers by a unanimous vote of the National Assembly. Which was elected by a popular vote by the people of Venezuela. Oh, the antidemocratic horror!
Now, let’s look back at President Garcia of Peru:
Critics say this move is an attempt to boost Mr Garcia’s powers in the face of flagging public approval.
Polls indicate his popularity has dropped below half – his worst approval rating since taking office last year.
Ouch.
No, that’s not me feeling any pain for Garcia; that’s me, expressing what it’s like to have a stitch in my sides from laughing so hard, especially at right-wing idiots like this blogger, who were cheering for Garcia less than a year ago when he was talkin’ smack. Where’s your bravado now, fellas?
And just to rub the salt in further, let’s compare and contrast that with Chavecito:
President Chavez’s performance in office continues to be viewed positively by nearly two-thirds of the population, despite a 70% rejection of the non-renewal of the TV broadcast license of RCTV, according to the Venezuelan polling firm Datanalisis. Also, a new Latinobarometro poll finds that Latin Americans view Venezuela as the friendliest country in the Americas.
64.7% of Venezuelans viewed Chavez’s performance in office positively in March and 29.6% viewed it negatively, explained Datanalisis Director Luis Vicente Leon to Venezuela’s foreign press association today. The survey was conducted between March 12 and 23, among 1,300 Venezuelans of all socio-economic levels, with a margin of error of 2.7%.
So…Garcia’s popularity is below 50% (and probably going to drop like a stone in spite of, or even because of, this latest dubious move); meanwhile, Chavecito, even with power of decree for 18 months, is riding high. And all this in spite of his denunciations of a crap-ass channel most people only watch for its soap operas anyway.
Yet whom does the US media (and its parrots in Britain) call a tyrant? And at whom will they never level similar charges, even when the foo shits?
Yeah, you tell me.
Meanwhile, seeing as coca and cocaine play into all this, here’s a little item on Chavecito’s Bolivian counterpart, with some interesting facts:
U.S. officials say they can’t detect an increase in Bolivia’s coca crop under the country’s coca-promoting President Evo Morales — but say they doubt their own figures.
A study released Wednesday by the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy found Bolivia’s coca production "statistically unchanged" from 2005, the year before the leftist president, who rose to prominence as a coca growers’ representative, was inaugurated.
But U.S. officials say they still expect Bolivian cultivation of the plants used to make cocaine to rise under Morales’ "zero cocaine, not zero coca" policy, continuing an upward trend that began early in the decade.
The U.S. report estimated Bolivia’s coca plantings at between 52,000 and 80,000 acres, a range similar to 2005 estimates, the study said.
So, to recap: Coca production is NOT up under Evo Morales, himself a former coca grower, who has vowed not to take marching orders from the Yanquis when it comes to planted hectares of the marching-powder plant. And those figures, by all indications, have remained constant. The drug-control freaks have egg on their faces.
But do they admit it? No, they spin. The US drug control agency now “doubts its own figures”, which I guess is Newspeak for “can’t tell its head from a hole in the ground”.
Either that, or it’s Newspeak for “We can’t believe it’s not for blow!”
Honestly. This is a US agency charged with the rather important task of making sure none of that coca lands up in a gringo’s powder-crusted nostrils. Yet it can’t even keep track of where the stuff is growing, let alone whether crops are up or down, and it sure as hell can’t eradicate it altogether. When do you suppose they’ll get the message that the cocaine problem begins with demand, not supply? It’s clear to me that they are about as useful as teats on a bull, at least in Bolivia.
And as the US-tame president of Colombia keeps proving, with all his draconian policies, the more money they throw at the problem, the more the thugs profit. This is used as justification for all kinds of corruption and fascism disguised as an anticrime crackdown. Yet no one calls Alvaro Uribe a tyrant either, even though the evidence keeps mounting in favor of such a charge.
But kiddies, you mustn’t wonder why. Don’t worry your cute little heads. Just repeat after Big Brother Media, preferably in the voice of
a sheep:
Tame neo-cons, doubleplusgood! Chavez and Morales, doubleplusbaaaaaaaaaaad!
Also, Garcia has closed TV stations too.
Ohhhhh…do tell. 🙂