Conversation with Juan Forero
Date: January 2003. (During the paro.) Citing from memory…
JF: I just don’t see why the opposition can’t wait until the mid-way point in the guy’s term and go for the revocatorio. It’s the one constitutional option y’all have, and the only one you can imaginably get international support for.
FT: But Juan, see, you’re treating Chavez like a normal politician again. If we wait that long, there’s no guarantee at all that the country will still have institutions anywhere near independent enough to actually hold a referendum.
JF: But see? Attitudes like that are precisely the sort of thing that convince tons of people abroad that the opposition is just paranoid, or at least so short-termist that it can’t be trusted…I mean, hardly a week goes by when Chavez doesn’t mention the revocatorio as the logical, legal, sane way for the opposition to go about this…how on earth is he going to then turn around and deny it?
FT: No somos suizos, Juan, and Chavez especially. Man, he’s really, really not Swiss…the country can’t hold out until the recall, or, the institutions can’t…
JF: So then a coup is basically alright?
FT: I’m not saying that, I’m just saying that the opposition is not acting totally irrationally when it doubts the chances of a recall actually taking place…
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