Venezuela Chavez: No VAT Tax Hike, No University Law

[Judi Lynn]

JANUARY 4, 2011, 11:48 P.M. ET
Venezuela Chavez: No VAT Tax Hike, No University Law
By Ezequiel Minaya and Kejal Vyas
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

CARACAS (Dow Jones)--The Venezuelan government will not increase the value-added sales tax and will scrap a controversial law which would have increased government control over the country's universities, President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday night on state-run television.

The VAT tax, which currently sits at 12% and was widely expected to go up as the country looks for ways to boost its revenue stream, will not be adjusted. "Not one point, not two points, nothing...not in 2011, not in 2012," Chavez said. Last month, the socialist leader had said he was looking to increase the tax in a bid to raise more funds that could be used for reconstruction after severe floods in early December displaced more than 130,000 people.

The socialist leader also said he will not sign the university law which would have given central authorities greater control over the South American country's autonomous higher education institutions, where there has also been much criticism of Chavez's 21st-century socialist revolution.

Government officials had justified the law by saying it would make admissions for universities more egalitarian and open them up to poorer people. But students protested the legislation, saying it infringed on their academic freedoms.

More:
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20110104-714901.html

[rabs]

1. Gee, Hugo makes a lousy "dictator"

repealing controversial laws, don't you think? :-)

A mini-slew of repeals in the past few days ...

Evo repealed the "gasolinazo" drastic hikes on fuel ...

Hillary repealed the nomination of Larry Palmer ...

Now Hugo squashes the VAT and the university law ...

[social_critic]

2. he didn't repeal a controversial law

The law was proposed by his people, and it was his people (including all the Chavez supporters here in DU) defending that law. He put his finger up in the air and saw the scope and size of the students demonstrations being prepared for next week, and he decided to punt. I suppose the Venezuelan people do realize he'll be back at it in a subtler way, and the same way he already passed laws which include items rejected by the people in a referendum in 2007, he'll just pass the law's contents piecemeal.

The VAT was also proposed by his own people, but he saw the resistance starting to gear up, so he also gave it up - like he likes to say, for now.

Hugo Chavez is an autocrat, not a dictator. He has a repressive regime, but it's not as repressive as he needs to silence the people. A new set of "Cuban laws" passed by the National Assembly in its dying days give him a dictator's power. This Assembly will go down in history in the same chapter as the assembly which gave power to Hitler. The new set of laws put in place the foundation for a system to control the media and silence the internet, but he hasn't put it into effect yet.

His next move will likely be to muzzle the press more effectively, then he'll crank up to pass more of this type of law. The Venezuelan people are facing a dark future. Nothing can really be done about it. And there will always be people willing to defend the indefesible. Such is humanity.

[mudplanet]

4. Please explain how his regime is repressive. We keep hearing that

he's "repressing the press" yet the majority of Venezuela's press is owned and operated by his opposition (and often engages in what, in the US, would be considered sedition),

and regular elections, judged as well run and fair, are carried out,

and he follows Venezuelan law.

As near as I can tell, the only people who feel "repressed" are the wealthy business elite, and they feel repressed because they no longer feel that they "own" the Venezuelan government and it's courts and must now participate in the democracy like any poor person. Losing your special privileges and immunity can feel like repression, I guess. But I could care less.

Right next door, in Colombia, there is a government that has been killing journalists, human rights activists, union activists, and poor people who own property that the wealthy elite want, with impunity, for decades. Now there's fascism for you. Yet you seem to think that Chavez's legal response to massive disasters heralds a "Nazi" takeover.

How, given these facts, does Venezuela and Chavez merit a description as an "repressive, autocratic regime" compared to Colombia? Could you provide a cogent argument instead of pretending you can predict the future?

[naaman fletcher]

6. fair elections

who judged the last elections as fair? just asking. Cant seem to find a source for that when I google.

[mudplanet]

7. Try googling venezuelan elections monitoring

http://www.cartercenter.org/news/pr/venezuela_120307.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5710814/ns/world_news/

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3009

http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/5679

And possibly, the fact that he essentially lost the Assembly in the last election. No, I bet that was the corrupt one.

[naaman fletcher]

11. I said last election

And Venezuela analysis doesn't count as neutral

[Judi Lynn]

12. Keep looking, then. Don't expect others to do all your work for you. n/t

[mudplanet]

13. OK. How about you do some of you own research. Elections under Chavez have

been deemed to be free and fair by everyone except the right wing reactionaries within Venezuela. Even the mainstream US press didn't raise objections to the last one, and they pretty much take their cues from Langely and State, which are both notorious liars.

Show us a link to an "objective" source that indicates, credibly, they weren't.

It seems that your stance with all things in this forum is that others must prove to your satisfaction every assertion, yet you can refute assertions without evidence or facts. You know what you know, the hell with research and evidence.

I doubt most people are convinced. But go ahead and give it a shot.

And, if you had bothered to read the link, you'd have noted that the Venezuelan Analysis piece was linked to a report by COHA.
Founded in 1975, the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), a nonprofit, tax-exempt independent research and information organization, was established to promote the common interests of the hemisphere, raise the visibility of regional affairs and increase the importance of the inter-American relationship, as well as encourage the formulation of rational and constructive U.S. policies towards Latin America. In 1982, COHA’s board of trustees voted to expand its mandate to include monitoring Canadian/Latin American relations. Since its inception, COHA has been one of the most active and broadest-based U.S. private bodies dealing with the entire spectrum of political, economic and diplomatic issues, as well as responding to the economic and political challenges confronting the nations of this hemisphere. From its beginnings, COHA’s board consisted of the leadership of some of this country’s most important trade unions, professional organizations and religious groups, as well as distinguished civic and academic figures, who joined together to advance their common belief in support of representative government and pluralistic institutions throughout the hemisphere.

If you don't like what COHA has to say, tough. Cite a more credible source. Cite something. Anything. Or it's just gainsaying. Is that what they call argument where you come from?

[naaman fletcher]

14. I didn't say the elections were unfair

I simply challenged your assertion as it applied to the last election. So I have no argument to make.

[social_critic]

20. The last election was gerrymandered

I think the reaction to the election results was pretty interesting. They went on to rush a bunch of laws, most of which are meant to allow the government to control the media or repress the people. They did back off on the University Law because there was so much opposition to it. Now I see Chavez is sort of laying low, but the "cuban law" package really scared a lot of people, and the exodus is on, people are fleeing, and property prices are crashing as a result.

The net result is a speed up of the brain drain. I would be very careful if I were a highly skilled professional in Venezuela, they may be about to be hot commodities. Communist countries eventually have to close off their borders, put patrol boats offshore, and start shooting people who try to leave. You draw your own conclusions.

[social_critic]

19. Three out of four references are old, and the last one is wrong

Let's forget the first three references, they're old. The last one is by Venezuelanalysis, a chavista website. Now let's look closer at what's been happening:

When the Chavistas lost the Caracas Metropolitan Mayor's office in 2008, Chavez ordered the National Assembly to pass a new law to have a new "Vice President" - designated by the President - to rule the Metropolitan district. In other words, as soon as they lost the elections, the chavistas went ahead and changed the way things worked, ignoring the popular will.

The recent elections led to a significant opposition presence in the National Assembly. What did Chavez do? He ordered the National Assembly to pass a law enabling him to rule by decree for 18 months - thus gutting the INCOMING National Assembly's role. And they did this even though they had the majority in the incoming assembly! What they want to do is avoid DEBATE, because they are so anti democratic they don't even want to have the ELECTED representatives of the opposition discuss new legislation.

The Venezuelan regime is an AUTOCRACY. Chavez was elected, but he is ABUSING HIS POWER. He is incompetent, abusive, coarse, more fascist than socialist, and is destroying Venezuela.

[CJvR]

8. You hardly need to cheat.

In a majority election system you hardly need to cheat as long as you control how the election districts are drawn up. That way you can turn 5 50/50 districts into 4 60/40 for your side and one 10/90 for the opposition. All nice and legal and without needing to stuff a single ballot box.

[social_critic]

9. Venezuelan Government Repression

The majority of Venezuela's media is self-censored by government threats. Ever since radio stations and RCTV were closed, they self-censor, except for Globovision, which has been directly threatened, and whose majority owners have been chased out of the country using trumped up charges.

Furthermore, the government abuses its power by interrupting TV transmissions all the time, to put government officials on giving speeches or carrying out minor ceremonies. This has been mentioned by the Interamerican Human Rights Commission as a threat to press freedom and an abuse of government power.

I haven't seen much in the press which would be considered sedition in Venezuela UNDER VENEZUELAN LAW. Frankly, I don't think Venezuelans give a hoot about whether Americans call this or that sedition. And in Venezuela there's something called Article 350 in the Constitution, which allows individuals to make comments one can't make in the US. Article 350 was put in the Constitution because President Chavez wanted it in, so please don't complain to the opposition, it's a Chavista idea. if it backfires on them, that's their problem.

Regular fair elections are no longer carried out in Venezuela. The National Assembly districts were gerrymandered, and in the last elections the opposition, after gaining 52 % of the popular vote, ended up with about 1/3 of the seats. On top of that, the outgoing assembly, prodded by Chavez, gave him the right to rule by decree for 18 months, a term which extends into the term of the new assembly, which took over yesterday. Venezuela is the only country on this planet where an Assembly delegates its power to an imperial presidency, for a period which extends beyond its term in office.

Government repression is also practiced by illegal confiscation of businesses and property. There are other threats, such as loss of jobs, denial of legal documents, or jail (such as in the case of judges which rule against the government line). Further repression is seen in the newly passed "regulation" which forces National Assembly members which belong to the chavista party to vote according to the party directorate directions - if they don't they can lose their posts and go to jail. Only an autocracy would dare have such a rule, whereby assembly representatives have to respond to the party leadership, and not to the people who vote for them.

I know you say "as near as you can tell", but it's evident you can't tell much, because both the election results (again, 52 % of the people voted against the government), and poll results show the population is both opposed to the government and has certain concerns which are not being addressed, and one of these are abuses by the police, the national guard, the security services, the justice system, and the conditions in the jails, which are horrible.

Regarding the comment about Colombia, I suggest you write a separate comment about conditions in Colombia, which everybody knows need to improve. We are discussing Venezuela right now, and I think people are fully aware one of the tricks used by chavistas to cover up the regime's problems is to change subjects. The Chavez regime deserves the label as autocratic and repressive. It doesn't reach the same levels or degree as the regimes in North Korea or Iran, but it's not what it used to be, nor is it what it should be.

[mudplanet]

15. This is contrary to what I've been reading. Opposition media

is alive and well in Venezuela and the only self-censorship going on is in regards to what most people would call sedition.

Readers should not forget that prior to and following the attempted coup the opposition media wasn't engaging in journalism but was advocating for an illegal overthrow of the legally elected government and non-cooperation with government policies and programs. In fact, the opposition media in Venezuela was instrumental in organizing a protracted strike that damaged Venezuela's economy significantly. That's not journalism, that's advocacy and political militancy.

So "as near as I can tell" doesn't suit you, I suggest that you provide evidence that it's incorrect instead of just saying it. Some credible evidence of illegal confiscation of property, loss of jobs and intimidation of judges would be welcome. Otherwise, it's just a more lies and fairytales.

I'm sure that there are abuses by the government and issues which aren't being addressed to some people's satisfaction, just like there are in all governments. No one said the Chavez government is perfect or even near it, just that it's a quantum leap better than previous Venezuelan governments and the government of Colombia. Unless you happen to be part of the Venezuelan economic aristocracy, in which case you might resent losing your accustomed privilege of pretty much using the country and its populace as your own private economic resource.

If we're all aware of the "tricks chavistas use" you're gonna have to spell it out to me, 'cause as near as I can tell that trick boils down to one strategy - responding to untruths, lies, and pernicious half truths with truth and facts.

[social_critic]

17. here's material you can read about the human rights situation in Venezuela

This material is mostly from international organizations and NGOs. I included one sample from a US site (CATO Institute), Human Rights Watch, the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights, European Parliament, and others quality sources. Evidently if you are reading sites with a tendency to white wash and cover up the problem, then you would be kept in the dark about it. I urge you to be more open minded and understand that indeed there are serious violations of human rights taking place, including serious attacks on press freedom.

And please remember this happens to be a discussion about Venezuela - don't try the usual technique "well, but I noticed press freedom is a lot worse in Tajikistan" or whatever.

Intermerican Commission on Human Rights report on Venezuela (look it up in their website)

http://www.cidh.org

Human Rights Watch

http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/07/21/venezuela-close-chavez-s-new-censorship-office

http://www.hrw.org/es/news/2004/11/23/venezuela-media-law-undercuts-freedom-expression

http://www.hrw.org/es/world-report-2010/venezuela-0


Cato Institute

http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/freedom-of-the-press-and-venezuela/

Committee to Protect Journalists

http://www.cpj.org/2009/02/attacks-on-the-press-in-2008-venezuela.php

European Parliament statement about human rights in Venezuela

http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=MOTION&reference=B7-2010-0418&language=ES

[EFerrari]

5. LOL. We've been hearing these ungrounded dire projective predictons for 10 years.

And they sound sillier and sadder all time.

[social_critic]

10. They are not ungrounded - Venezuela is losing its freedom and its brains

There's no question that Venezuela is losing its freedom. This is not a laughing matter, the change has been gradual, and it has been unrelenting. The economy continues to deteriorate, crime continues to increase, arbitrary application of the law, or lawlessness on the part of government officials continues to increase, the government continues to lose support, and therefore the only means they see to keep power is gradual ratcheting up of repression.

Now, maybe you can laugh because this tragedy doesn't impact you. But there are many being killed and maimed by the crime wave, there are many hurt economically, and this includes many in the working middle class and the poor. Hundreds of thousands if not millions have already fled, tearing families apart and creating a brain drain from which the country will never recover. I think the economic damage can be patched over, but the flight of the educated middle class can not be remedied. Just like Spain after it expelled the Jews, or Uganda after it expelled the Indians, Venezuela will be a ghost of its former self.

[mudplanet]

16. What you mean is the wealthy elite in Venezuela is losing its privileges.

There are many being hurt in the crime wave today. But how many were being systematically hurt but the unrelenting poverty and lack of access to medical care before Chavez. They have to figured into the equation. How many infants survived until age 5 because of Chavez's programs, how many poor people survived treatable illnesses who but for Chavez's programs would have died? These figures simply don't concern Venezuela's wealthy.

You "claim" that many poor people are being hurt economically, but almost all reliable sources show exactly the opposite. There are economic problems primarily related to the fact that the price of oil dropped precipitously. Absent Chavez, the money made by Venezuela during the oil boom would all have gone into the pockets of the wealthy and not into programs to fight poverty. I suspect that may be what really upsets you.

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/web/guest/country/home/tags/venezuela
http://www.cepr.net/documents/venezuelan_poverty_rates_2006_05.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Venezuela

[social_critic]

18. No, that's not what i mean

You are really missing the point. Crime today is a serious concern for all Venezuelans - and it has become an overriding factor.

Oil prices have been increasing since 2000. Here's a reference graph:

http://www.mongabay.com/images/commodities/charts/crude_oil.html

The claim that many poor people are being hurt is supported by the election results: the government lost the popular vote in the last election (September 2010). If they had been doing such a good job, they wouldn't have lost it. People vote with their wallets.

It should also be obvious that 25 to 30 % inflation year after year doesn't sit very well with the poor, when wages fail to keep up with inflation the way they do. Your "reliable" sources fail to grasp the simple math: negative economic growth, high inflation, salaries which fail to increase with inflation, and increasing unemployment = increasing misery.

[Bacchus39]

3. an absolutely horrible dictator n/t

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