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Friday, January 31, 2003 |
In Idled Venezuela, Psychiatrists Work Overtime. Venezuela is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Business is booming for psychiatrists as people struggle with the high degree of uncertainty. By Juan Forero. [New York Times: NYT HomePage]
It's not official, but the strike is over. The only question is gas. I tried to get some today, but couldn't. Otherwise everything is open and there is close to normal traffic. Whoever doesn't open by monday isn't on strike, is broke.
3:46:58 PM 
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I think El Firmazo will be another failure for the opposition. There are 6 different forms to sign. At least one is of questionable legality: I don't think you can ask for signatures for the revoking referendum until after August 19. Another is kind of absurd: It asks for the removal (revoking referendum) of some officialist assembly members (Why not all?). These two haven't even been published in final form. Another asks to sign a letter to the international community but the text of the letter hasn't been propagated quite enough. In another form they ask, again, for Chávez resignation...
The other two proposals are valid (if they are written correctly, big IF). One asks for an amendment to the constitution (I hope they checked the retroactivity argument) and another asks for revoking the 49 laws passed with special powers last year. These are the only ones I would sign, but I'm afraid to do so, I'm sure I will be pressured into signing them all.
Finally, they are pretending you won't be able to sign after tomorrow. Why? There is no significance to tomorrow's date except to disguise the fact that the referendum isn't happening (a failure for the opposition, they refuse to admit and that has costs us a lot of money, because of the foolish strike)... A lot of venezuelans already signed something that was a mistake. The opposition should be more careful...
8:15:59 AM
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© Copyleft 2005 Alfredo Octavio.
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