Long Live Venezuelan Democracy

Three years after the Venezuelan people, in 1999, ratified one of the most progressive, visionary constitutions in human history, the CIA orchestrated a coup of President Hugo Chavez--which, in the end, failed, to the chagrin of oil-thirsty bloodhawks in Washington.

(See for more http://www.venezuelafoia.info/english.html)

In the new Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela "the essential purpose of the State are the protection and development of the individual and respect for the dignity of the individual, the democratic exercise of the will of the people, the building of a just and peace loving society, the furtherance of the prosperity and welfare of the people and the guaranteeing of the Fulfillment of the principles, rights and duties established in this Constitution. Education and work are the fundamental processes for guaranteeing these purposes."

"Sovereignty resides untransferable in the people, who exercise it directly in the manner provided for in this Constitution and in the law, and indirectly, by suffrage, through the organs exercising Public Power. The organs of the State emanate from and are subject to the sovereignty of the people."



PREAMBLE
The people of Venezuela, exercising their powers of creation and invoking the protection of God, the historic example of our Liberator Simon Bolivar and the heroism and sacrifice of our aboriginal ancestors and the forerunners and founders of a free and sovereign nation; to the supreme end of reshaping the Republic to establish a democratic, participatory and self-reliant, multiethnic and multicultural society in a just, federal and decentralized State that embodies the values of freedom, independence, peace, solidarity, the common good, the nation's territorial integrity, comity and the rule of law for this and future generations; guarantees the right to life, work, learning, education, social justice and equality, without discrimination or subordination of any kind; promotes peaceful cooperation among nations and furthers and strengthens Latin American integration in accordance with the principle of nonintervention and national self-determination of the people, the universal and indivisible guarantee of human rights, the democratization of imitational society, nuclear disarmament, ecological balance and environmental resources as the common and inalienable heritage of humanity; exercising their innate power through their representatives comprising the National Constituent Assembly, by their freely cast vote and in a democratic Referendum, hereby ordain the following:

The entire Constitution in English translation is here: http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=6831

This constitution finds few friends in the current administration, which is so heavily invested in bringing "democracy" to the world, because it guarantees such things as universal health care, state responsibilities toward adequate labor conditions, the right to organize and unionize and to strike, and includes articles on "Environmental Rights" which includes a ban on patents of the genes of living beings, and makes protection of species and the environment a fundamental duty of the state, and surely most bothersome are the clear definitions of inalienable public ownership and state control over minerals and hydrocarbons, and a ban on concessions of indefinite length.

A fundamental perspective of this blog is that the logic and tactics of capitalism are at the heart of the current global crisis, and that democracy is the antithesis of this order, which is why democratic developments anywhere in the world are being demonized and persecuted as "terrorism" by the reigning corporatist state powers (with the US, Britain, and Australia in the lead). An interesting article focusing on Venezuela in this showdown between capitalism and democracy is here:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article8461.htm

Venezuela at the Crossroads of the New Humanity Century
By Vladimir Bravo-Salazar
04/05/05

And read here about the National Housewifes' Union!

More thoughts on political economy are in the works and on the way...