The mayor of Venezuela’s capital recently lost much of his authority. The mayor of Maracaibo, the country’s second-largest city, is in hiding. Soldiers have taken over ports once controlled by governors who are members of the opposition.
Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez say a series of moves by the socialist leader’s allies, including targeted corruption probes and laws shifting power away from opposition-held offices, mark a power grab by Chavez at a time when he’s feeling emboldened by a referendum win allowing indefinite re-election.
“It’s a government that’s becoming more strongly centered on the figure of the president and it’s becoming more repressive,” said Margarita Lopez Maya, a historian.
Chavez denies involvement in corruption cases being pressed against top opposition leaders but insists many are “criminals” and “mafiosos” who should face justice.
“Let the bourgeoisie squeal, but there has to be justice,” Chavez said during a visit to China.
The most recent move limiting the power of an opposition figure came on Tuesday, when the pro-Chavez National Assembly weakened Caracas’ newly elected mayor by taking away offices including city hall and eliminating most of his responsibilities for city services.
Instead, authority will be transferred to an official appointed by Chavez to oversee the capital.
Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, who replaced a Chavez ally, plans through a referendum to challenge the law that has usurped his powers. Some of his authority was already diminished when former Caracas mayor Juan Barreto, a pro-Chavez ally, transferred the police and city hospitals to the national government. The new law strips Ledezma of responsibility for health, police and education, reducing his role to one of coordination between district mayors.
It’s not yet clear how the law will effect Ledezma’s budget — an issue to be decided in the next month — but he could lose federal funds.
Chavez on Tuesday defended the law as “absolutely necessary” to provide better administration in Caracas and said municipal governments “are going to remain intact.”
Earlier, another law brought seaports and airports under federal control and Chavez sent troops to take over some of them.
The law bringing transportation hubs under federal control affects all local leaders, but key opposition politicians will be hurt most because they previously administered some of the country’s largest ports and no longer receive revenues from tariffs.
Prosecutors also have resurrected a corruption case against opposition leader Manuel Rosales and jailed former Venezuelan defense minister Raul Baduel, a Chavez critic who faces an accusation that funds went missing on his watch. In contrast, not a single prominent politician currently allied with Chavez has been charged with corruption — in spite of many accusations by critics.
Chavez’s authoritarianism has become increasingly apparent as he has concentrated power since winning a Feb. 15 vote that eliminated term limits, said Lopez Maya, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to