Language

Institutional Breakdown

Submitted August 31, 2005 - 10:10 am by Benjamin Melançon
The United States has an adversarial judicial system.  Whatever you think of the theory and practice of our checks and balances, like this one, it's pretty frightening to see the prosecution and the defense seem to be on the same side.

In this context--and the wider context of the unpopular, at most once-elected (likely never-elected) Bush administration's continuing consolidation of control of all three branches of government--it's pretty funny to have Chaffardet claim that the constitutional, Bolivarian revolution processes in Venezuela represent a breakdown of the divisions between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

Especially because with the resume that Chaffardet has ("Special Services for the Interior of Venezuela, ... an operative in the Venezuelan Attorney General’s office, ... DISIP (Venezuelan state and political security police) as the General Secretary") the current government of Venezuela would seem to have plenty of material for political persecution, should they choose that route, especially if "the courts are history."

I certainly give him credit for staying in Venezuela, though, even if I don't think he's in any danger there.  If only Posada had stayed in Cuba...

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