Chavez Frias says he is NOT a communist, nor will Venezuela become a communist state
<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic news Posted: Sunday, June 08, 2003 By: David Coleman
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias has given additional fodder to the opposition media, describing himself as "ugly and sometimes coarse" ... but denies emphatically that he is a communist or that communism would ever be introduced in Venezuela. "The opposition keeps trying to compare me with Cuba's Fidel Castro ... but I am NOT a communist, if I were, I'd say so directly because I have no 'hairs on my tongue' ... Fidel Castro is my friend and brother, yes, he's a communist, but the Venezuelan project is NOT communist and could never be such."
Speaking on his weekly "Alo Presidente" national radio and television broadcast earlier today, Chavez Frias brushed aside opposition accusations that he is intolerant, and says he can readily accept that there are people who do not share his vision for Venezuela or his ideology ... "I understand that I am not a golden boy to the whole world ... I'm ugly ... I'm black with mixed indian blood ... that's me "I'm proud of my mixed-race ancestry and I'm a little coarse sometimes ... but what can I do? I cannot change the way I am."
The President has called on public institutions to act responsibly and in time to avoid major problems. "We simply cannot have people calling for a coup d'etat ... we must act quickly to deal with desperate opposition sectors whose only goal is to overthrow the government. I am calling on all members of the National Assembly (AN) to avoid violent confrontations like last week's rumpus in the Legislature -- that was a kind of coup d'etat aimed at overthrowing Congress itself."
Chavez Frias suggests that the citizenry and his allies in the Legislature, who command 51% of the 165 seats, should urgently ask for a judicial process against "rebel deputies who have attempted to sabotage and impede the proper functioning of parliamentary process." That session of Congress was suspended after opposition deputies brawled and began to set fire to parliamentary order sheets. AN president Francisco Ameliach had suspended the session which was re-convened on the steps of El Calvario on Friday under a security blanket provided by 5,000 soldiers.
Former AN president Willian Lara said Friday's assembled quorum was able to approve a partial reform of the Assembly's Internal Debate Rules where the opposition has for three months attempted to block approval of 43 laws reforms seen as critical to getting Venezuela economically back on its feet again.
Vocal opposition leaders complain that approval of the reform laws poses limitations on fundamental rights in Venezuela but President Chavez Frias says "the majority of the Venezuelan people want peace ... what we want now is for public institutions to close ranks to avoid the violence and chaos that the anti-government conspirators want to spread. The opposition should take pause to reflect on the fact that it is they who are creating violence, but it will not impede Venezuela's progress to transformation and peaceful reform."
"Part of this would be for the media to cease their poisonous campaign against the government, seeking to falsify what is good and true about my government and myself ... for example, they will be making little of the fact that today we can announce a loan of $250 million from the Central Bank of China to construct a 180 kilometer long aqueduct to secure supplies of drinking water to the people in Falcon State.