Ominous and obvious...

No real surprise at the news that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has confirmed that he will be trying to change the law to allow him to remain in power indefinitely; most of the exact details have not been released yet but Don Hugo has confirmed what most of us expected - that he will be seeking to remain in power continuously. Now, on the face of it that's pretty bad BUT to put things in perspective this will only be done if he continues to win the support of the people i.e. elections and referenda. (Picture link)

As I say above...on the face of it...HOWEVER, one must remember that at present there is effectively no organised opposition party and pretty soon Venezuela is likely to have a single party, the Venezuelan United Socialist Party (Partido Socialista Unidos de Venezuela, PSUV), ...sounds fine but unfortunately this would be an amalgamation of 'the whole left', that is from centre liberal left right across to extreme left and communism. I don't think they have much choice and three of the various parties have "so far refused to dissolve their groups and they have expressed concerns that this new style of politics could lead to one way of thinking" (Yes..I think that's what Hugo wants!). Thing is, there are millions who have already signed up to be activists for the new party...yes, millions! "Six million people have volunteered to become activists. They have been formed into battalions"...that many in a country with a population of 26 million and whose voting population is about 18 million people...the maths is easy: 30% of the entire voting population are already/soon to be signed-up party activists!...can you see how easy winning elections is going to be?

That's not all...these 'battalions' will have their own 'security'; I have mentioned this before and it is worrying: Chavez wants a 1 million-strong civilian militia - citizen soldiers:

"...a 1 million-strong civilian militia for a "war of resistance" against the United States."... ..."and 150,000 have already joined, surpassing the regular military's force of 100,000. Now Venezuelans are also organizing neighborhood-based militia units for Chavez's Territorial Guard."

Now, as they keep saying, these armed militias are only to guard against a US invasion, right?

"We're not the police or the national guard, but if there is a coup or an effort to assassinate the comandante, we will go into the streets to defend the revolution,"

I'm not so sure: the opposition or anyone who even speaks out against Chavez is immediately hounded and insulted as being puppets of the 'evil empire', so if there is a sufficiently effective vocal or active opposition they will be treated as instruments of the US and it only needs one man to stifle that voice of opposition, actual invasion or not, ominously and obviously, the writing is on the wall:

"If Chávez wants us to react, we will."