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POPSChávez budgets $250 million for ‘alternative’ groups The draft was the first time that the government publicly included in the Foreign Ministry’s budget these types of spending plans for programs to promote Chávez’s ideology abroad. Chávez is ”making use of the enormous amount of money that comes from high oil prices to buy support from Latin American countries and promote anti-American initiatives,” said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a Washington think tank… For Latin America, it includes plans to consolidate ALBA, Chávez’s response to the free-market treaties promoted by the United States, and a strategy to “neutralize the actions of the empire, strengthening the solidarity and the public opening of organized social movements.” In Central America and Mexico, the draft says the Venezuelan government expects to ‘’strengthen alternative movements” in “the search for an erosion from the imperial domination.”
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POPSChavez: Only a 'Traitor' Will Vote No His speech followed the recent high-profile defection of his former Defense Minister Gen. Raul Baduel, a longtime ally who called the president's proposed reforms a "coup." Others have also broken with the Chavista movement in recent months, including politicians of the small left-leaning party Podemos. At the moment, Chavez is riding high as he is hugely popular among the country's poor. His promises to redistribute the wealth of the nation resonate with people who have little or nothing and very little hope for the future. The opposition, meanwhile, is disheartened, intimidated, and divided. It seems a foregone conclusion that the referendum on December 2 will pass and Chavez will get his dictatorial powers along with the ability to keep running for president as long as he is alive.
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