Life

Rosales, in his own words (part II)

Francisco Toro

Katy says: Manuel Rosales gave a lengthy interview to Valencia newspaper Notitarde. Here is a summary of what he had to say:

  • He repeated his promise to give the unemployed a minimum wage; details are fuzzy at this point.
  • Came out in favour of restoring Central Bank autonomy.
  • Came out strongly (and surprisingly) on voter secrecy and fingerprint scanners, saying “there is no way for anyone to know who is voting for whom, not with these machines, nor with any other established system.” He said fingerprint scanners are useless, and only serve the purposes to give the government information on turnout in real time.
  • Said that the main problem with crime is that the courts and the prosecutors are paralysed and overworked.
  • Said that the military must return to what they were trained for, and placed emphasis (not surprisingly) on border patrolling.
  • Criticized the government on its lack of respect for private property, saying “this government does not respect any private property, neither for those who have a small house or a plot of land, nor for those who may have a bigger house, a company, a car or an ice cream store. We all want property, we all want to own what is ours, but this government does not respect that.”
  • Talked about defining a new way of redistributing oil rents, using Norway and Iraq (!) as examples.
  • Repeated his proposal to redistribute 20% of yearly oil income in the following way: a minimum wage for the unemployed, and a cash handout to middle class and poor families, defining these families according to certain guidelines to be developed.
  • He promised to maintain social programs called “misiones”.
  • Emphasized his record defending the environment.
  • He said that he would look for the “least traumatic” constitutional mechanisms to have a new National Assembly if elected.
  • Came out in favour of abolishing the infamous Media Law, or “Ley Resorte”.

(Note: The picture is of Valencia, home of “Notitarde”, as a gift to my Valenciano friends for their once-wonderful, now-chavista city)

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