Chavez wins reform = Walesa and Americans beware

I was appalled to hear the news coming from Venezuela today: its President, Hugo Chavez, proposed a reform to lift elected official term limits and it passed (again, barely) with just over 50% in a nationwide vote. This surely means Chavez will run again and could possibly mean he will remain Venezuela’s president beyond 2016.

If you’re sitting at home thinking this has nothing to do with you, think again. Chavez has long been an opponent of real democracy and has extreme and sometimes scary socialist notions when it comes to how nations should handle the world’s problems. He is one of the leading opponents of the U.S. as a world power, and seems to go to great lengths to lobby for the support of other socialist nations such as Cuba, Russia, and China.

The even scarier implications of this news brings rather unwelcome tidings to democratic nations. Just recently, Chavez prevented Lech Walesa, the former Nobel Peace Prize-winning Polish President, from entering Venezuela because Walesa had planned on speaking throughout the country in support of Chavez’s party opposition. We Americans love Walesa, and have also been treated rather brashly in Venezuela, so the prospects of safe and happy travels in Chavez country are not looking so great.

Sean Penn on Hugo Chavez: “He is clearly not a dictator by any international standard”

Say the name “Hugo Chavez” and a creepy tingle crawls up my back and, if I could, I would scream at the top of my lungs in frustration and anger. Hugo Chavez, Venezuela‘s long-standing President, is what many Americans believe to be an evil, socialist dictator. While I certainly don’t agree with ultra-Conservatives like Pat Roberts that someone should kill the guy, I do believe Chavez needs to be stopped in seeking re-election until 2021 and beyond.

On the other side of the spectrum is Sean Penn’s humane approach to and interview with Chavez. In an interview that was recently posted on The Nation, Penn describes his time with Chavez since their first meeting in 2006.

I am a huge fan of Sean Penn as an actor, but his humanitarian resumé is rather brief. Penn seems to paint an awfully positive picture of the Venezuelan President in some ways because he is trying to disapprove of the Conservatives’ (on Fox News, for instance) extreme dislike of Chavez.

While my own opinion of Chavez is rather biased because of my time in Colombia and approval of Álvaro Uribe, Colombia’s President, whom Chavez once called “Bush’s poodle,” I still cannot see how anyone — particularly an outspoken actor turned interviewer — can be even the slightest bit approving of a man who supports terrorists and does not honor the democratic process. Chavez sought an end to presidential term limits last year, but his referendum was narrowly yet democratically rejected. Now he seeks the same thing — except this time, he has numbers on his side. In addition to this, he is slowly winning approval from such powerful nations as Russia and China. His wielding of power is frightening to say the least.

Thai government dissolved as protesters finally leave Bangkok’s airport

The Constitutional Court of Thailand decided that the ruling People Power Party had to dissolve. Its leader, now former PM Somchai Wongsawat, was forced to leave office. That was exactly the result that the anti-government mob occupying Suvarnabhumi International Airport was hoping for. Their goal was to shut down the airport until the government was taken from power or stepped down voluntarily. Their goals achieved, the mob at the airport dispersed earlier today.

Supporters of the government criticized the court’s ruling by calling it a judicial coup. However, the court claimed it had evidence proving that the PPP, as well as several other parties, cheated and bribed their way to victory in last year’s elections. The party’s leaders will be banned from politics, but other members are already at work forming a new party called Puea Thai.

Suvarnabhumi is now empty, but it was damaged during the protests. The head of Thailand’s airports, Serirat Prasutanont, said that the airport would remain closed until 6 pm on December 15th. Equipment and systems must be checked prior to the reopening. The closure cost the airport more than $10 million.

[Related coverage @ The Nation]

Magna Carta comes to the National Archives in DC

If you were following the Sotheby’s auctions late last year (or listening to NPR the day of the sale), you probably heard that a rare copy of the Magna Carta, one of the most important documents in the history of democracy, was sold to a Mr. David Rubenstien, of the private equity company Carlyle Group.

Speculation on where that version of the document, originally commissioned by the King of England in 1297, would end up, ranged from lost somewhere into a private collection to some sort of public display.

Luckily, this one wont end up on Steven Spielburg’s wall. The generous Mr. Rubenstien announced today that his company was loaning the treasure to the National Archives in Washington DC, where it will soon be put on display for the public to see, along with the Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights and Constitution. How exciting.

The document is slated to go on display on the 12th of this month. Make sure you stop by and take a look if you’re in the neighborhood — admission is free!