Venezuela Denounces
Anti-Reform Drive
Venezuelan National
Assembly Vice President
Roberto Hernandez
exposed a campaign of
lies on Thursday
concerning the
constitutional reform
project to be voted at a
referendum on December
2.
Hernandez told Prensa
Latina that, although
reform approval "is an
uncontestable fact," it
is imperative to
overcome the slanders
the opposition is
spreading.
The opposition has
appealed to such lies as
the reform would
eliminate private
property and parental
custody, that
presidential reelection
would mean dictatorship,
and so on.
Hernandez recalled that
the terms of preserving
private property are
clear cut in the reform
as other properties, and
that it is the people of
Venezuela who decide the
president"s reelection.
Eliminating parental
custody is truly absurd;
it already happened in
Cuba with the infamous
Peter Pan Operation:
they spread that lie and
many parents sent their
children to the United
States, dividing
families and many
parents lost their
children.
In his view "the most
important task is to
defeat such lies,
because they always
mislead some sectors of
the population,
especially when the
private media helps
spread them." The
Venezuelan legislator
called the reform in
depth confirmation of
the current
Constitution. We are not
making a socialist
reform but a reform in
transition toward
socialism, since our
revolution is of
national liberation in
transition toward
socialism.
Hernandez said the time
will come when history
and economic and social
conditions will call for
a fully socialist legal
realignment.
He pointed to a union
constituency being
promoted to achieve
unity of the labor
movement, and warned of
the need to be alert in
the transition toward
socialism because of the
danger that the
counterrevolution may
win.
On the expectations for
December 2, we are
certain of the victory.
I think that the big
enemy of the reform
process is abstention as
has been seen in some
elections.
Hernandez also warned
that opponents plan to
add the negative votes
to abstentions in order
to imply that an
important sector of the
population does not
approve of the reform
and so declare it
illegal.
With respect to the key
aspect of the reform,
the Venezuelan
congressman said it is
the people"s power and
the regulations
undergoing changes are
to give the people
greater prerogatives
that those that previous
laws gave them. |
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