Constitutions

As Venezuelans go to vote, it is worth noting that the country’s constitutional debate is not the only one in the region, and not even the most conflictive. Ecuador’s constitutional assembly recently dissolved the legislature and took over its powers while it drafts a new constitution to be presented in a referendum within eight months. As in Venezuela and a number of other Latin American countries, the opposition is disorganized and fractured, offering no alternative vision.

In Bolivia the situation is worse than either Venezuela or Ecuador in terms of political conflict, as the constitutional assembly holed up in a military installation without the opposition (which boycotted) and approved an initial draft of a new constitution in the midst of very violent protest. This draft, however, has not officially been made public and as yet there is no timetable for considering each separate article. Miguel has an interesting post and subsequent debate in the comments.

The truth is that Venezuela has oil and a flamboyant president whose insults and tirades are Vesuvius-like, so it receives the vast majority of the attention (including, I should say, from me). Constitutional proposals in Ecuador and Bolivia do get a lot of attention from bloggers, but in the U.S. media are either ignored or vaguely lumped together as “leftists” or Chávez clones.