by the El Reportero news services
Hugo Chávez
After months of speculation since his decisive electoral triumph in December 2006, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez finally presented the details of his proposed constitutional reform last week.
The reform, drawn up under the enabling law he passed at the turn of the year, which granted the executive full powers to legislate in key areas, is designed to enshrine the concept of 21st century socialism into a new constitution by 2008.
Chávez presented the constitutional reform to the 167-seat national assembly, which unanimously approved it in the first of three readings on 21 August. It will then be presented to the Venezuelan people in the form of a referendum.
Chavez’s largesse unprecedented in Latin America
TOOLS CARACAS, Venezuela – Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Chavez’s government is now offering more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than the United States.
A tally by the Associated Press shows Venezuela has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing and energy funding so far this year. While the most recent figures available from Washington show $3 billion in U.S. grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn’t known how much of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And Chavez’s spending abroad doesn’t come close to the overall volume of U.S. private investment and trade in Latin America. But in terms of direct government funding, the scale of Venezuela’s commitments is unprecedented for a Latin American country.
Opposition swings again at Ecuador’s Correa
On 23 August the supreme court asked congress to strip President Rafael Correa of his immunity so that he could be tried for criminal libel. Congress is unlikely to give the supreme court permission to try the president but it may well use the threat to force President Correa not to dissolve congress as soon as the constituent assembly is elected. The constituent assembly elections are on 30 September, and Correa as become increasingly outspoken about congress, calling it a sewer that needs to be shut down. Even some of Correa’s supporters fear that without congress there will be no checks of the executive.
Realignment in the Mercosur
The past month saw a realignment in the Mercosur, the South American customs union with ambitions of becoming a political alliance. It all started with the successive visits of the Argentine and Brazilian Presidents, Néstor Kirchner and Lula da Silva, to Mexico.
The visits brought Mexico closer to the Mercosur, but also revealed differences between Argentina and Brazil. Lula also embarked on a tour of Central America and the Caribbean, prompting the Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez, to take a counter-tour to strengthen his position in South America. Chávez had a clear advantage over Lula in their struggle for infl uence in the region. Yet a Venezuelan link to an Argentine scandal has offset this balance.
