Chávez is running for 2012 presidential election

"I have to stay a few more years as a president" (Photo: Miraflores Press Office)

Politics
Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez took another step forward in his path to indefinite reelection through an amendment of the Constitution. Aiming at February 2009, Chávez suggested that the amendment would be "really, really simple," and involves obliteration of a subparagraph in Article 230 which prevents the Venezuelan president from running for reelection more than once.

"What we could do is simply delete a phrase from Article 230. The new article would read as follows: 'The presidential term in office is six years. The President of the Republic may be reelected.' Full stop and nothing else. It's simple, really simple. It is as easy as ABC. Nobody will get confused," said Chávez in a speech after the inauguration of Alirio Mendoza as the new mayor of Guaicaipuro Municipality, in central Miranda state.

Chávez, who talked in a nationwide mandatory broadcast on all free-to-air TV and radio channels during one hour and thirty-five minutes, was optimistic about the result of his so-called battle for reelection. He even announced he was willing to run for president in the election to be held in four years. "From now on, I self-nominate as presidential candidate for 2012 election." He suggested his opponents to begin looking for their candidate.

Chávez divided the revolution into different terms since 1989, the year of the "Caracazo" (a wave of protests, riots and looting that occurred on February 27, 1989), followed by his victory in 1998 presidential election. The ruler said that the third phase is beginning in 2009-2019. "I ask God to give me life and health to be your president during all this revolutionary period," he stressed.

Fidel Eduardo Orozco