Venezuela: The Democratic Process Is Working

[marmar]

from AlterNet:



Venezuela: The Democratic Process Is Working

By Katie Halper, AlterNet. Posted December 6, 2007.

AlterNet caught up with author and activist Chesa Boudin in Caracas to get the scoop on the defeat of Hugo Chavez's referendum.



Last Sunday, Venezuelans voted against reforms put forth by President Hugo Chavez. The vote against Chavez's proposals for constitutional reform was surprising and extremely close, 51 percent to 49 percent. And yet both the United States and Chavez hailed the result of the referendum as a sign of Venezuela's democracy.

Looking for an on-the-ground account of the referendum and insights into the results, I spoke to journalist and activist Chesa Boudin, author of The Venezuelan Revolution: 100 Questions and 100 Answers. Boudin lived in Venezuela while researching Latin American public policy as part of his master's degree from Oxford University and is back in Venezuela working on a new book about Latin America's shift to the left and his own political awakening.

In a phone interview from Caracas with AlterNet, Boudin reflected on why the defeat of the referendum is a victory for Chavez, what JFK can teach the United States about respecting revolutions, the myth of the Chavez dictatorship, the now-obsolete "fraud" T-shirts preprinted by the opposition, and the good, the bad and the ugly (and the pretty) of Venezuela.

Katie Halper: What is it like in Caracas right now?

Chesa Boudin: It's very calm here. Of course you have the normal violent crime and criminal activity in Venezuela. That is constant. If you had asked me last week, I would have said that Chavez's referendum would have passed. But by the end of Sunday, before they announced the results, I knew that it wasn't going to win.

Halper: Why did it fail?

Boudin: First of all, there were real problems with the content of the reform. Second of all, there were problems with the process through which they tried to get the reform passed. And third of all, there is general discontent with certain aspects of the government that weakened voter turnout even though the government remains very popular, and Chavez in particular is extremely popular. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/69787/