>According to Dick Nichols, writing
>from Caracas, Chavez's most serious mistake has been his failure to
>move against the union old guard, following a national referendum in
>which a majority gave him a mandate to reform the CTV....
"move against"-- language like this is why sectors of the Left have little credibility. They turn to antidemocratic means, thereby making most of their rhetoric look like hypocrisy.
The CTV was forced by Chavez to hold new elections for leadership-- which Chavez forces lost despite great pressure from the government. There are pro-Chavez parts of the unions, but not a majority. That's called democracy, just as it's democracy that Chavez has been elected to run the government.
US-allied elites in Venezuela should not be seeking to oust democratically elected Presidents like Chavez, but the left should not be advocating ousting democratically-elected union leaders either.
When did the left lose all moral credibility in favor of pure opportunism?
-- Nathan Newman