The
democratically-elected Venezuelan Congress, which had been led by a large
majority of members of the democratic opposition, was supplanted last week by a
new legislature packed with both elected and appointed members of the
authoritarian Socialist regime, after the rigged election earlier this month
that was boycotted by the opposition.
The legislature will draft a new constitution to turn Venezuela into
a full dictatorship. In the meantime,
the Venezuelan Attorney General, who had been critical of the regime, was forced
to go into exile by the Socialists. The
international community, the Church and human rights organizations must
continue to support the democratic opposition in Venezuela to force a return to
representative government and liberty.
The
leftwing President of South Africa narrowly survived a no-confidence vote last
week in the national parliament. He
faced the vote because of allegations of corruption, but enough of his party,
which enjoys a large majority in the national legislature, supported him to
keep him in office.
Pro-democracy
activists in Hong Kong were sentenced to
prison for their peaceful protests in favor of democratic self-rule for the
special administrative Chinese territory.
Communist China had promised self-rule, representative government and
the free market in the territory when it reverted from British rule in 1997,
but Peking has become increasingly intolerant
of these principles.
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