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BREAKING NEWS

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VHeadline.com commentarist Elio Cequea writes: Another battle in the war for the control of Venezuela has come to a close. The CNE officially announced that there were enough signatures to call for a Presidential Referendum. The opposition is claiming a victory, while the government is saying that it was not defeated. Those two claims can be debated one way or another, but one thing that can not be denied is the fact that Venezuela’s democratic system has won again.

As a matter of fact, Venezuela had won this round the moment the process for the referendum was activated. Still, there are people who want the government to fall. Those are and will always be the only losers.

www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=6822 Per Venezuela’s 1999 Constitution, the President may be revoked. But, it can be done only by popular vote.

Four TV stations and two newspapers CANNOT do it.

A referendum will not happened just to please some rich guy’s particular desires. It will happen because such are the wishes of many Venezuelans. In fact, the referendum will happen because of an exact number of Venezuelans: 2,541,636 – that's 20% or more of the electoral body as the Constitution requires.

That is democracy!

 In the year 2002, I heard from many good-intentioned but brainwashed compatriots that Venezuela “could not wait for a referendum.” The mid-term of Chavez' Presidential period was then a year away. A common hysterical expression was “the country will be destroyed if we don't do something right now!”

Coincidentally, that was the same subliminal message being hammered by the local media.

And – here we are two years later – the referendum is two months away and Venezuela has not been destroyed. It was not destroyed by the coup d'etat – or by the ‘civic strike’ – or by the ‘guarimba’ – or by paramilitaries from another country. After all the smoke has been cleared, we can all see that our Constitution still standing firm.

Aren't you proud?

You should be if you consider yourself Venezuelan.

There will be more smoke in the coming weeks – just a little if most of us play for the side that represents Venezuela and its Constitution.

I hope that those who call ‘solution’ the ousting of the President will not influence many of our families and friends. Hoping for the ousting of the President is fine. Calling it a ‘solution’ however, is nothing but inciting violence among us. What if the President wins the Referendum? Would that be a solution?

 The best weapons of the opposition have been lies and deceiving catchy phrases. Many have fallen into the trap thinking, for example, that we are having a referendum to remove a dictator. THINK about that! With a dictator there would not be a referendum. Some of the most recent lies of the opposition have been confirmed during the past week.

Has the CNE played in favor of the government?

Has the President refused to accept the decision of the CNE?

Has the President really obstructed the path towards the Referendum?

There are more good questions that we can ask to ourselves:

Do you think that the process of having to collect legally the necessary number of signatures for a referendum is considered an obstruction?

Not getting enough votes to remove Chavez – will that be considered a legal result?

In 2002, the President wanted to call a referendum. It was going to be him against a candidate from the opposition. They refused the offered. Then the President asked them to try to call a Presidential Referendum. They agreed to that – but only after a failed coup-tainted strike.

Some people, including the President, claimed fraud during the collection of the signatures and signs of fraud were confirmed by the CNE during the repair process.

 It does not matter now.

The results from the CNE are final – and, they should be. That is democracy.

Can the opposition learn something from this, or do we have to teach them on August 15?

We will teach them one way or another.

Elio Cequea
mailto:Feico57@att.net

www.vheadline.com/cequea More VHeadline.com commentaries by Elio Cequea

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