Venezuela's upcoming referendum

I think Quico has been doing a great job covering the news on this year's referendum for lifting term limits. If you want to keep up with it, go to Caracas Chronicles.

Just here my views on a nutshell:

• The government is using all its TV and radio channels, all the oil industry workers and many other state employees all around Venezuela to campaign for the Sí vote
  
• The government is using a massive amount of reserves for last minute campaigning (which includes giving food for free for those who promise to vote Sí)
  
• The Electoral Council, very pro-Chavez, is limiting the ads the opposition can show to the channels and times nobody watches
• Students are being repressed by the police everywhere
  
• The government tries all kinds of dirty tricks to prevent people from going to opposition marches, even when they do authorize them (they block roads pretending to do security checks, construction works, etc)

And the "leftists" in different countries in Latin America are still quiet, as they are getting quite some dosh from the Venezuelan government. Shame on them. Specially shame on Argentina and Brazil. Do they have to be like the fans of Kissinger and Thatcher, who would close an eye to the support of those politicos to Pinochet and others? Do we need to go so far? No, Chávez is definitely not doing what Pinochet did in the seventies and eighties and no, we do not have a dictatorship yet, but we do have an autocrat and a regime that is becoming more repressive and abusive of its power. How war?