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ADDITIONAL ITEMS

• Porque no te Callas (MP3 Files)

A Changing Country

Venezuela is in the midst of a critical moment.

Someone told me that just before I arrived here five and a half weeks ago. Looking back, the list of things that have changed in this country in the span of a month and a week is incredible.

Last week, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was verbally slapped silly by Spanish King Juan Carlos. At the Ibero-American summit in Chile, Chavez repeatedly called a former Spanish prime minister a "fascist." Carlos responded to Chavez with, "¿Por que no te callas?"

Translation: "Why don't you just shut up?"

Carlos was applauded at the summit and at home and throughout the Spanish-speaking world, where a traditional Spanish patriotic song has been re-written to feature Carlos's now-famous words.

It's a musical response to ¡Ahore, Si!, the Chavista song that has, until now, dominated Caracas's streets. (A link to the Mp3 can be found to the right.)

There have been other major changes.

Early this month, the National Assembly approved a massive re-write of the country's constitution that will be considered in a referendum on Dec. 2. If approved, presidential term limits will be abolished and the government's power to seize private property will be strengthened. The president will also be allowed to declare indefinite states of emergency, during which personal rights could be severely limited.

Opponents of the reform are floundering. Some say they'll refuse to vote, convinced that the election is fixed, the outcome in favor of the reform already determined. Others point out that a vast absentia will ensure Chavez's victory, even if a majority of the country opposes the reform.

Since I've been here, the debate over the reform has turned violent. One student was shot dead, and several others (the exact numbers aren't clear) were injured when masked gunmen fired upon them just after an opposition march.

Five and a half weeks ago, though real milk wasn't guaranteed at corner markets, at least powdered milk was. Now, a sighting of even powdered milk is enough to spark a brawl between housewives in the grocery store aisles.

More changes will come. In this season, Venezuela's future is tenuously balanced, and will easily topple to one side or the other.

When that happens, I'll be back in the United States. I leave early tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. I'll brave the highway to the airport (famed for muggings by motorcyclists traveling 50 miles per hour), then break through the clouds on my way to Miami, then on to Washington, D.C.

I'll stay in D.C. for a week to finish up reporting and present my project (along with the two other IRP fellows) to the Johns Hopkins University academic community.

The Herald will likely publish articles based on this trip early next year.