Showdown looms in Venezuela over decree powers plan
Venezuelan politicians traded insults at the weekend with a showdown looming in the National Assembly over President Nicolas Maduro's plans to ask for fast-track decree powers he says he needs to combat corruption.
Maduro, who narrowly won an April election to replace his late mentor Hugo Chavez, says he is ready to change "all the laws" if necessary to stamp out widespread graft that is denting his popularity with some core supporters.
The opposition accuses Maduro of turning a blind eye to major corruption by his allies and of trying to use his campaign to distract voters from worries such as inflation, creaking public services and violent crime.
"You don't need decree powers to fight corruption. That's part of the 'show' by Maduro to cover up his disaster of a government," opposition leader Henrique Capriles said on Twitter. "It's certain he doesn't have the votes to approve it."
http://news.yahoo.com/showdown-looms-venezuela-over-decree-powers-plan-165808760.html
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1st photo Maduro says, "I guarantee that, the history of Venezuela, there is no corruption, for the first time in 180 years"
2nd the headline reads, "This week I will make known new cases of corruption."
elections, because it would likely put them back a few notches in terms of the pecking order. The senior leaders of the Army are members of the Boligarchy, and they are getting rich-rich-rich while those at the bottom end scramble for crumbs, and arepa flour, and toilet paper.
They might "run" Diosdado after a period of reorganization, but that reorganization would be used to consolidate their grasp.
It always benefits the military to have an Army guy, like Chavez or Diosdado, in charge. For now, they can "draft" off of Maduro, but he's not really one of them and his only connection to them is through the ghost of Hugo. If they decide that Maduro is just too much of an idiot, and is driving the bus of state off a cliff, then they'll step up, not for themselves, of course ( 
) but for the good of the nation and the memory of Saint Hugo.
Diosdado is IDEAL to front this kind of thing, because he was a real, true friend of Hugo's back in their old coup-making days. There are photos a plenty of the two of them, younger, slimmer, with more hair, but make no mistake--it's them, they're friends, and they had common cause. That kind of imagery is helpful when one is taking over a nation having a large population percentage that worshipped a dead leader.
Also, Cuba has a real interest in keeping someone on Hugo's page in charge--they would become a Failed State on Steroids without the "Gimme oil--here are doctors" exchanges they've got going on with VZ. They'll lean in, hard, to make sure that situation stays on track.
