Venezuela deploys troops in disputed poll states

[DuctapeFatwa]

Venezuela's government deployed troops on Tuesday in two opposition-held states where regional election results were delayed and one governor accused President Hugo Chavez of trying to force him from office.

Two days after Sunday's polls, soldiers ringed the office of Gov. Eduardo Lapi in central Yaracuy state, who suggested Chavez was carrying out a coup d'etat against him.

Security was also reinforced in Carabobo state, whose Gov. Henrique Salas is a prominent opponent of Chavez.

Pro-Chavez candidates have been declared winners of 18 of the country's 22 state governorships contested. This has consolidated the left-wing president's political grip over the world's No. 5 oil exporter after he won an Aug. 15 referendum on his rule.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N028733.htm

[Minstrel Boy]

1. Sing a song for Chavez

For the Moment
David Rovics

For the moment the horizon is on fire
Democracy rising balanced on a wire
Liberation, you can smell it in the air
Things are moving and the rich are all aware
Some will talk along the sidelines, others they will do
Me, I'll sing a song for Chavez before the coup

For the moment the airwaves are alive
On the radio the barrios have arrived
Cuban doctors in their thousands on the street
In the shanty towns they're pouring the concrete
The opposition whines that Venezuela is all through
Sing a song for Chavez before the coup

For the moment folks are learning how to read
The Constitution is the people's creed
From their back pocket they'll take it out for all to see
And their motto is death or liberty
There are those who will complain, mostly the privileged few
Sing a song for Chavez before the coup

For the moment the oil wells are flowing
And Citgo's profits know exactly where they're going
Feed the hungry, house those without a home
Give the tractors to those who dig sod and loam
Maybe he will meet the fate that Allende knew
But I'll sing a song for Chavez before the coup

For the moment the movement's on the rise
It's all happening right before our eyes
But turn on the TV and there's nothing they will say
If he's gone and we don't hear it did it happen anyway
If the future's to be ours I ask what are you gonna do
Sing a song for Chavez before the coup

http://www.davidrovics.com/

[damntexdem]

2. Oh, in Venezuela.

I was hoping Venezuela was sending the troops to Florida and Ohio. ;-)

[montana_hazeleyes]

7. I was

thinking the same thing!

[Judi Lynn]

3. Just like a true right-winger, he's obsessed with hanging onto power

at any cost (always at the expense of others).From the article:

Yaracuy's Gov. Lapi accused Chavez, a firebrand populist whom critics accuse of ruling like a dictator, of trying to oust him before a final voting result was known. Preliminary figures showed his pro-Chavez rival just ahead.

"Is this a coup d'etat against me or an electoral process?" Lapi said on local television. He accused National Guard troops of "taking over" the governor's mansion.

Chavez had warned opposition governors he would send in tanks to remove them if they lost in the regional elections and refused to hand over power.

The deployment of the troops indicated Chavez, who has survived a coup, strikes and violent protests over the last three years, was ready to quickly deal with unrest. But the elections and their aftermath have been generally peaceful.
(snip)

Sounds as if he, too, is losing, and also threatening, as we have read about earlier, to refuse to leave office.

If these people aren't "Opposition" I don't know who IS! Democracy is to be practised, respected by everyone but them.

[DuctapeFatwa]

5. What should a Democratic US President do if a Repub governor lost

and refused to leave office?

[Judi Lynn]

6. Don't know how they do it, but they simply label anyone who resists them

as a "fascist," or a "dictator," or a "communist," or a "terrorist," or anything which comes to mind, and tries to enforce their own wills.

You might remember Rudy Giuliani made loud offers to stay on in New York as mayor, due to the terrifying state of emergency and his his conviction the people "needed" his steady hand at the wheel.

Right wingers are without value.

[DuctapeFatwa]

8. LOL I am sorry, too many windows, completely misread your post!

I have had too much coffee. Apologies :D

[Zorra]

4. I was thinking Florida before I read the story. n/t