Blog 6: Fear among Venezuelan voters

William Neuman writer for the New York Times detailed this article, which was published in the Times on October 5^th. The article explains the root and reasons behind the undeniable fear in the hearts of Venezuelan voters. In the upcoming Venezuelan election Hugo Chavez, president for nearly 14 years, is yet again running for re-election. It is said that Chavez has a number of indubitable advantages over the candidate opposing him. The greatest of these advantages include what is described in the article as the “fear factor”. There are a number of Venezuelan citizens who do not wish to see Chavez re-elected as president; they are tired of the economic state and crime rate in the country. On the other hand it is common knowledge that a vote against the president can lead to some undesirable consequences. It is explained that a vote against the president can result in a person being fired from a government job, losing a home built by the government, or being cut off from social welfare benefits. These factors inevitably deter the people away from casting ballots against Chavez; they fear the consequences. Despite this fact however, it is known that a number of Venezuelan citizens are indeed silently rooting for the opposing candidate. Consequentially the government recently introduced a new electronic voting system for this upcoming election. The people fear that this device may be a ploy used to track those who vote against the president. Chavez holds a lot of the power and uses his controls over outlets such as television and radio to enforce his campaign. Chavez predicts that he will receive 10 million votes in this upcoming election and frankly with the advantage his fear factor tactic holds it is hard for one to doubt that he will.

            There are handfuls of things morally and undeniably wrong with what is going on in this upcoming Venezuelan election. Mainly the violation of an equal opportunity for people to exercise their rights as a citizen; that is to freely vote for the candidate of their choice. Frankly Hugo Chavez’s campaign tactics are a huge violation of human rights. No one should have to fear losing their house, their job, or their social welfare benefits for that matter based on whom they vote for. If the people are not happy with the current state of the country and wish to elect new officials they should have that right. There is a mix of social inequality and political inequality going on here. Basically the people who hold the power i.e. the upper class namely the government are unjustifiably forcing their hand on the working class. They are using their influence and control of media to in a sense create a dictatorship over the state. There is no justification for this every law abiding citizen deserves the ability to exercise their right to vote free of fear.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/06/world/americas/in-venezuela-fears-persist-among-voters-ahead-of-election.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world