Los Ojos del Exterior
Venezuela se encuentra en una encrucijada politica. Democracia plena o Comunismo impuesto.

Como este asunto es un problema politico candente, los ojos del exterior estan colocados sobre el pais para observar y evaluar lo que esta sucediendo. Uno de esos ojos corresponde a la prensa norteamericana. Veamos este ejemplo:

Eye on Mr. Chavez

THERE WAS a remarkable democratic exercise two weeks ago in
Venezuela, a South American country of 24 million, a major oil producer
and the foremost of a number of troubled Latin American states that the
Bush administration has badly neglected. Determined to oust their
populist and quasi-authoritarian president, Hugo Chavez, before he can
do any more damage to the country, more than 3.5 million people signed a
petition, in just four days, calling for a recall referendum. This
astounding turnout by some 30 percent of the electorate occurred
peacefully. Observers from the Carter Center and the Organization of
American States said they saw no evidence of irregularities. A
commission will now validate the signatures; unless it throws out more
than 1 million of them, Venezuela will have the chance to peacefully
resolve a political conflict that has threatened to tear it apart.

The main obstacle, predictably, is Mr. Chavez, a self-styled
revolutionary who over the past five years has triggered an implosion of
the Venezuelan economy, trampled on the private business sector and the
independent media, and alienated nearly all his neighbors save Fidel
Castro. Mr. Chavez appears likely to lose his job if a referendum is
held, and consequently is doing everything he can to stop one. He
accused the petition-gatherers of "megafraud," though he produced no
evidence; he summoned thousands of his supporters to a demonstration and
vowed that no vote would take place; he sent his thugs to attack
anti-government protesters in a plaza where the opposition was
headquartered. Opposition media report that thousands of Cubans have
entered the country in recent months and are busy organizing the
president's strongholds. No one doubts that Mr. Chavez is capable of
violence. His first political act, after all, was a failed coup, and
last year he triggered an ultimately unsuccessful coup against himself
by ordering police and the military to attack opposition demonstrations.

Mr. Chavez will allow a referendum and respect its results only if he
is convinced that fraud or violence won't work for him. That's where the
Bush administration should come in, along with Venezuelan neighbors such
as Brazil. In the coming weeks, as the referendum process proceeds, they
must insist to Mr. Chavez that he not disrupt it -- and be prepared to
respond if he tries. If the president can persuade Venezuelans to keep
him in power through a democratic vote, his country and the outside
world will owe him a fresh chance. But he must not be allowed to
complete his depredations on Venezuela by destroying the last vestiges
of its democracy.