Municipal authorities of the Greater Caracas Metropolitan area and Governor Henrique Capriles Radonski of Miranda state, along with civil society representatives, students and parents proposed a referendum against the Education Law. Podemos MP Juan José Molina said the proposal was justified because the law covers themes that contained the rejected constitutional reforms from December 2, 2007. "At the moment, we're playing with the future of the country that represents our youth, our sons and daughters, and it is important that it is through true unity where teachers, students, civic organizations and political organizations are in agreement that we present a convincing victory," he explained. Minutes later, the mayor of El Hatillo, Myriam Do Nacimiento said that while her office coordinated a contingency plan for the rains with the Mayor of Baruta, the National Assembly was meeting to approve the law. Baruta Mayor Gerardo Blyde took the floor and asked each of the directors and representatives to be vigilant from September 15 so that that legal text is not applied. "We have to wipe clean the Venezuelan legal map and the legal override process is being used for exactly this purpose, so that there is no contradiction at all and we must work together to support parents and teachers, because I am sure that the rejection is greater among the public than in private," he said.
Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma said Monday that more civil actions are coming to avoid the Education law from "consuming everything". He said that since last Friday several activities have organized in opposition to the law because it is necessary to "avoid a law that seeks to convert the education system into a political laboratory from entirely consuming" the country's schools. He said that in the opposition "we are acting with a single focus," and admitted that there has been a dispute about the way forward in addressing the law, namely whether they should consider the legal text unconstitutional, or request a referendum that legally overrides the process. "The dispute is about the paths that must be taken and what we are considering it so legally override the process via referendum, he told Unión Radio. He said that the debate has been advancing in the final hours and said that we must take into account the experiences lived in the country with both approaches. Ledezma advocated responsible conduct by the opposition leadership. "There must be a coherent strategy, what varies is the tactics for each situation. The government launches its red rags, provokes us into walk as though eggshells and that is exactly where the leadership is put to the test." For Mayor Ledezma, "the government is using democratic institutions to dismantle Venezuelan democracy."
Social and economic problems reduce Chávez's popularity. A survey conducted by Consultores 21 (from the 19th to the 28th of June, 2009) reveals that the majority of the population considers security to be the main problem in the country. A majority of the respondents disapprove of how the government is being managed today. The electoral hypothesis is the first element of the evaluation. The results show that if a presidential election were held today, Chávez would lose by more than 12%, 49.6% would vote for any candidate other than Chávez and 37.7% would vote for Chávez. According to the survey, more than 50% of respondents answered "false" when asked if the president wants to help people, always has good intentions, is an honest person, respects the opinion of others and always tell the truth. These opinions of President Chávez are determinants in the rejection of the current management of the government and are conclusive evidence regarding the preference of the vote, specifically that 57.9% of the population does not agree with Chávez's proposals while 37.6% does agree, a difference of 20.3%.
The elimination of property rights is one of the most worrying aspects of the new Special Law of Integral Regularization of Land Tenure in Urban Settlements. Pablo Pérez, governor of Zulia, warned that the legal framework, which the National Assembly (AN) approved in the early hours of Friday, endangers private property because it gave "free will" to the executive branch to decide which land to expropriate. Pérez recalled that since 2007, when constitutional reform was proposed, the president has been trying to introduce laws that infringe on the rights of Venezuelans to own property. "This is the same president of the republic who gave instructions to disregard private property through the adoption of the Urban Land Act." He criticized the National Assembly for adopting regulations to carry out the orders of Miraflores as a priority over the will of the people, who were not consulted.
Torture remains a common practice for some Venezuelan police officers, according to the People's Ombudsman's report for the year 2008, which shows that in the last twelve months, the agency responsible for human rights in the country recorded an increase of 10.34% in number of people who suffered abuse at the hands of soldiers. In a report last week to the National Assembly, Gabriela Ramirez said that over the last twelve months she received 87 complaints of torture, compared with 78 in 2007. Of the 87 cases, 66 of were physical assaults and 21 were of the psychological variety. The Ombudsman said further that the body most cited for committing such violations continues to be the forensic police (CICPC), a recurring finding over several years now.
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