Ruling from Venezuela’s presidential palace

By ⋅ December 20, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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The Palace can found on Urdaneta Avenue in Caracas (Photo: Guillermo Ramos Flamerich)

President Chavez has changed many things about Venezuela. For example, he’s effectively thrown out the country’s old political ruling class as part of his “Bolivarian revolution.” But one thing he hasn’t changed is the presidential palace. Chavez works in the same building that Venezuelan leaders have been working in for over a century. We want to know the palace’s official name.

Geo Answer:

Recent heavy rains and flooding in Venezuela displaced as tens of thousands of people. President Hugo Chavez’s response is to expropriate private construction companies. He says it’s to speed up the recovery.

Chavez signed the expropriation decree yesterday at the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, the answer to our quiz. On Friday, Venezuela’s lame-duck National Assembly voted to give Chavez the power to rule by decree for the next 18 months. The opposition in Venezuela isn’t happy about that and neither is the US State Department. Both accuse President Chavez of using the recent floods to grab extra power just weeks before a new National Assembly with more opposition members takes office. Reporter Rachel Jones has more from Caracas.

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Discussion

2 comments for “Ruling from Venezuela’s presidential palace”

  • Alice de Tocqueville

    Your report from Venezuela was mildly slanted; interviewing someone against Chavez’ action, and someone who didn’t mind it, but no one who spoke for the millions of Venezuelans who support him. Thus your report gave no indication why Chavez has been re-elected and re-elected by such large numbers in certified free elections (certification that is not applicable to US elections). As long as you’re going to mention that the US State Dept. doesn’t ‘approve of’ Chavez’ action, why not mention that?

    For myself, a US citizen who has paid attention during the Cold War, the Vietnam horror, the civil rights struggle, the Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan illegal actions, and US support for the illegal MILITARY coup in Honduras, the fact that the US State Dept. disapproves of something or someone tends to make me pretty sure they’re doing something right. We don’t need government propaganda on the public airwaves. We have better sources for news and we do use them. This is why I seldom listen to your network.
    dept.

    • Bonnie McFAdden

      Alice De Tocqueville is absolutely correct. Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez, is doing so many things right for the majority of Venezuelans that the U.S. State Department and the handful of corporations that own the America media are scared to death that Americans will learn how well socialism is working for their citizens.

      As an American who has lived in Venezuela for the last four years, I’ve had the opportunity to observe the political, economic and social reality here.

      The Chavez government has accomplished massive improvements in the standard of living, virtually wiping out illiteracy and extreme poverty, while providing easy access to good medical, dental and optical care that millions of Venezuelans never had before President Chavez’s election in 1998.

      The majority of people now have access to good nutrition through government Mercals and restaurants, as well as housing through subsidized mortgages, while small business loans are available as well.

      Real participatory democracy takes place at the neighborhood level through the community councils that receive technical assistance and funding to make community improvements, while the democratic electoral system is virtually tamper-proof, having an automatic recount of a certain percentage of the ballots. If there is a discrepancy with the electronic counts, there is an entire recount of that voting precinct. No un-auditable ballot results here, unlike the U.S.

      Venezuela is creating a democratic society that puts human needs and aspirations ahead of private profits. That’s why the U.S. and its media demonize President Chavez.