You know a country is run by thugs of the worst sort when you see something like this:
A journalist from a foreign news channel -CNN- asks a key deputy of the ruling party - Carlos Escarrá- why the outgoing National Assembly approved a law to permanently expel from the National Assembly -not just the party- someone who votes contrary to what the party and leader say. He retorted saying that such a thing is normal in every country.
One thing is to expell someone from a party and another to inhabilitate that person for her job as a deputy. That second thing is not only not normal, it is against the Venezuelan constitution, the same constitution Chavismo initially hailed as "the best on Earth" but a constitution the regimes keeps changing through referendums and Enabling Laws.
The journalist asked again why a deputy can be penalized and expelled from political activity at the National Assembly. Escarrá, who is supposed to be a lawyer specialized in the constitution, said she was being disrespectful and that she was not asking a question but giving a statement. As usual for a man in an authoritarian regime, he asks her name. I have seen Chávez honchos doing this time after time: when they don't like something you say, they ask your name as a way to intimidate (something is going to happen to you, who are YOU?).
Mr Escarrá shows the worst Venezuela has to offer. He shows how some people in Venezuela are still in a set of mind of Colonial Venezuela or Venezuela in the times of the War of Independence, when real debate was something unthought of, when questioning even about the most normal things was seen as an affront, when you had to obbey "porque me da la gana", because that's what I want.
Mr Escarrá, who is supposed to be one of the "leading figures" of constitutional law among the supporters of Venezuela's military regime, should know that in democracies a deputy can and sometimes changes her mind and votes against her party. That can be very hard for a party, that can be unpleasant, that can eventually lead to someone being excluded from that party if the situation is repeated (parties do avoid that) ,but that is part of democracy. Still, that deputy goes on being a deputy. When a deputy does that, she is, for better or for worse, using her conscience. That is something the military and pseudo-socialist Chavista honchos do not grasp.
A journalist from a foreign news channel -CNN- asks a key deputy of the ruling party - Carlos Escarrá- why the outgoing National Assembly approved a law to permanently expel from the National Assembly -not just the party- someone who votes contrary to what the party and leader say. He retorted saying that such a thing is normal in every country.
One thing is to expell someone from a party and another to inhabilitate that person for her job as a deputy. That second thing is not only not normal, it is against the Venezuelan constitution, the same constitution Chavismo initially hailed as "the best on Earth" but a constitution the regimes keeps changing through referendums and Enabling Laws.
The journalist asked again why a deputy can be penalized and expelled from political activity at the National Assembly. Escarrá, who is supposed to be a lawyer specialized in the constitution, said she was being disrespectful and that she was not asking a question but giving a statement. As usual for a man in an authoritarian regime, he asks her name. I have seen Chávez honchos doing this time after time: when they don't like something you say, they ask your name as a way to intimidate (something is going to happen to you, who are YOU?).
Mr Escarrá shows the worst Venezuela has to offer. He shows how some people in Venezuela are still in a set of mind of Colonial Venezuela or Venezuela in the times of the War of Independence, when real debate was something unthought of, when questioning even about the most normal things was seen as an affront, when you had to obbey "porque me da la gana", because that's what I want.
Mr Escarrá, who is supposed to be one of the "leading figures" of constitutional law among the supporters of Venezuela's military regime, should know that in democracies a deputy can and sometimes changes her mind and votes against her party. That can be very hard for a party, that can be unpleasant, that can eventually lead to someone being excluded from that party if the situation is repeated (parties do avoid that) ,but that is part of democracy. Still, that deputy goes on being a deputy. When a deputy does that, she is, for better or for worse, using her conscience. That is something the military and pseudo-socialist Chavista honchos do not grasp.
Venezuelans can watch in the following video what real democracy is. Many Liberals voted against party lines and they are still representatives of the people. The same has happened with Conservatives, Labour and others across history. This is normal.
By the way: coup monger Chávez said before getting elected he was not a socialist. He said a lot of other things. So? Which is which?
By the way: coup monger Chávez said before getting elected he was not a socialist. He said a lot of other things. So? Which is which?
Here you can read how - once more- a representative of an NGO for Human Rights was attacked by Chávez thugs. This has to change.