Thread: Fleeing from Venezuela

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007 10:41 a.m. EST
Thousands Fleeing Hugo Chavez's Venezuela



Each day after dawn, hundreds of Venezuelans gather outside the Spanish Consulate in Caracas, hoping to get papers allowing them to flee the South American country for Spain.

Others form long lines at other consulates, equally fearful of the future of Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez. Two months after Chavez was re-elected to another six-year term, the National Assembly is entrusting him with wide-ranging powers that will allow him to dictate new laws for 18 months.


Among its major moves, the government has announced that it will nationalize telecommunications and electric utilities and other strategic industries, decline to renew the broadcast license of RCTV television – which officials allege supported a coup against Chavez in 2002 – and amend the constitution to remove presidential term limits, allowing Chavez to repeatedly seek re-election.



"What we're seeing happen here is not good," Jose Manuel Rodriguez, 42, an accountant seeking travel documents at the Spanish Consulate, told the Washington Post.


"What we see here is the coming of totalitarianism, fewer guarantees, fewer civil rights. I want to have everything ready to leave."




Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, said in a statement this week: "We should all be concerned about the direction President Chavez is taking his country.


"Any leader who tries to tighten his grip on power by destroying the institutions of democracy, curtailing press freedom and using his office to intimidate pro-democracy opponents is setting in motion a dangerous process with potentially ominous consequences."


Some Venezuelans who are fleeing the country are opting for residence in the U.S., according to the Miami Herald. "The latest figures show a surge of Venezuelans moving to the United States either through asylum, permanent residence or other visas,” the Herald reported.


"Those who seek asylum are claiming persecution or that communism is about to take hold in Venezuela.”



Venezuelan government officials insist that "the president's moves are the will of the people and that his latest electoral victory is a mandate for Chavez to deepen what he calls his Bolivarian revolution,” the Post reports.


But a recent survey in Venezuela by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Washington, D.C. polling firm, found that a strong majority of Venezuelans oppose the plan to remove presidential term limits and the decision not to renew RCTV's license.


Mark Feierstein, a political adviser with the polling firm, said the survey "suggests Chavistas are uncomfortable with some of this and, more importantly, it shows that Chavez is misinterpreting his mandate."
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2007 ... shtml?s=ic

It's quite clear Chavez is the illegitmate son of Fidel Castro and Satan. I have a friend of mine from Venezuela who is a rancher/businessman. He came here the right way, also. He told me that he could see it coming with Chavez. The Chavez forces started seizing buildings and lands in the name of the government. Hugo is a classis communist dictator. This is sickening to see. I hope Citgo and others will do the right thing and show their disapproval by pulling out of Venezuela. The people will react accordingly and push that windbag out of office soon enough.
Someone asked the question if we would be willing to pay a little more in gas just to get our business out of Venezuela. Personally, I wouldn't mind. We can't keep fueling the economies (or the back pockets) of these crooked countries with crooked leaders, i.e. Venezuela, Iran, North Korea, et al.

Yeah, I'd like to get oil from the USA!! Too bad the "greenies" control Congress too!

I'm tired of these "touchy-feely" people controlling our politicians...

How do we get a new way of government? Elections don't seem to be working!

Well, I say they had better get our border secure very soon or we haven't seen nothing yet, people fleeing there, just picture it!!!

"How do we get a new way of government? Elections don't seem to be working!"

Well, you have the coup, but they never work either. I'll take our elections over what the rest of the world has to offer. If the military staged a coup, then you would have a series of Generals in charge. If the Liberals had a coup, what a battle that would be for the crown. Would it be King Tim (Robbins) and Queen Susan (Sarandon) or King Bubba and Queen Hillary? I think if that were to ever happen, it would be time for Texas to exercise its right to leave the Union.