Today 30 years ago here in Spain the people voted positively in a referendum for The Constitution of Spain; it is regarded as the culmination of the Spanish transition to democracy from the Francoist dictatorship. The long road from their 'original democracy' started back in the early 1800s, the first constitution was written in 1812 after the Spanish people had risen up against French domination and with British help under Wellington booted out Napoleon. It continued through the loss of colonies, more than one dictator, staying out of both World Wars and in between, a bloody civil war.

Today, is also the day, 10 years ago Hugo Chavez was elected President of Venezuela; happy anniversay Hugo...ten years...not quite sure of any connection except that Venezuela seems to be heading from democracy to dictatorship or at least hovering between the blurred lines of the two.

Reading on the blatantly pro-Chavez website Venezulea Analasis I was sifting through various articles, impressed that Venezuela was 4th in a Life Satisfaction poll (rather than take their spin I looked it up myself [IDB]...) when I noticed another article named "To Stop the Advance of the Right, We Must Strengthen People's Power" where they interviewed Gonzalo Gómez of Chavez's United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). Interesting..."The Right" aren't part of the people?

[VA] What does the election of opposition governors and mayors mean for the community councils, communal organizing in general, and the communal cities proposed in Chávez's recent law-decrees?

[GG] Well, surely they are going to be an obstacle and they are going to be enemies of this. They are going to try to destroy it. At best, they will manipulate it initially, and they will go and converse, dialogue, and begin to build bridges from the government.

But this is a dialogue of traitors aimed at taking advantage and buying time to prepare for what they are going to do afterward. We are talking about the counter-revolution. We are talking about a rancid ultra-right wing. They are mortal enemies of people's organizations, of popular power.

Nice...vote against, or God forbid, indulge in dialogue that is not pro Chavez and you must be a traitor, a rancid, ultra-right mortal enemy of the people.

P.S. In that last link "another article" it appears that Dave Lee Travis is a Venezuelan hero!